The deviance of women: a critique and an enquiry

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is quite simple: it is to focus on an obscure and largely ignored area of human behaviour, namely deviance in women. It is suggested.(a) that the problems associated with this neglect may, in themselves, be interesting from a sociological point of view. (b) that the topic has both intrinsic interest for the sociologist today and that it has wider relevance to, for example, aspects of social structure. (c) that, in so far as it is an example of possibly curious counter-tendencies to certain widespread trends in deviance, it may be of especial interest.The deviance of women is one of the areas of human behaviour most notably ignored in sociological literature. This apparent lack of interest is remarkable for a number of reasons:(a) deviance in general (i.e. in practice either male and female deviance together or simply male deviance alone) has long aroused considerable interest. Since Durkheim (1938: ch. 3) argued that 'deviant' or 'pathological' behaviour has social as well as individual aspects, the sociology of deviance has been an important and developing field of sociological theorizing and enquiry. Therefore the general unconcern with the potential deviance of approximately half the members of any human society is surprising. (b) Interest in the changing position of women as it has affected marriage, the family and the division of roles within it has been considerable and has been productive of a vast range of studies, from, moreover, almost every known 'type' of sociologist: from American functionalist theoreticians to the more empirically-minded British.1 (c) As will be indicated below, differences between the patterns and manifestations of male and of female deviance were long ago observed (see

Criminologías feministas, investigación y cárceles de mujeres en España

“…Es especialmente en los países anglosajones donde irrumpen con gran fuerza los primeros trabajos elaborados por mujeres, sociólogas y/o criminólogas con perspectivas críticas y feministas, sean del Reino Unido (Smith, 1962;Heidensohn, 1968;Gibson, 1976;Crites, 1976;Smart, 1976) o de Estados Unidos de Norteamérica o Canadá (Ward y Kassebaum, 1966;Giallombardo, 1966;Bertrand, 1969;Adler, 1975, entre otras). En pleno auge de los movimientos feministas de liberación de las mujeres, estas autoras empiezan a visibilizar la criminalidad femenina dentro de la literatura criminológica y sociológica, en donde prác-ticamente no existían referencias al respecto, a excepción de las citadas tesis positivistas de finales del siglo xix, con explicaciones biologicistas y sexistas de las causas de la delincuencia femenina.…”

“…Algunas veces, los estudios incluyen datos y estadísticas oficiales sobre los delitos y las cárceles de mujeres. Pero estos datos no son ni del todo fiables, ni suficientes, ya que, en general, como apuntan Heidensohn (1985), Genders y Player (1987) y otras autoras, solo dan una ligera pincelada acerca de los perfiles penales femeninos con unos pocos y sesgados datos de delitos y condenas. Por eso cobran gran importancia las voces de las mujeres presas, sus experiencias y etnografías de vida, sobre todo por la forma en que cuestionan y desaprueban los estereotipos de mujeres delincuentes que se construyen a partir de esas estadísticas.…”

Women and criminality: a study into the involvement of women in cannabis plantations in the São Francisco Valley, Brazil

“…With the strengthening of the Feminist Movement starting from the 1960's-1970's, there have been numerous studies about women and crime in reaction to so called criminological androcentrism, questioning the sexist stereotypes that inform classical and positivist criminological theories based on a biological reductionism of female identity (Espinoza, 2002;Heidensohn, 2010;Klein, 1973;Simpson, 1989).…”

A Narrative Approach to Women’s Lawbreaking

“…This involves recognising that the term 'woman' is at once real (in that it has real effects), but also denying that the category has any essential meaning (Carlen 2008). Deconstructing gender is central to feminist perspectives in criminology, from early feminist deconstruction of criminological discourses about women (Heidensohn 1968;Smart 1976Smart , 1977Naffine 1987), to contemporary research deconstructing how gendered, racist and heterosexist ideologies are employed by criminal justice agencies (Carlen 1983;Gelsthorpe 1989;Sharpe 2009;Chesney-Lind and Irwin 2008;Pasko 2010).…”

“…The 1980s saw a flurry of empirical and theoretical work on women's and girls' lawbreaking prompted by the feminist critique of criminology (Bowker 1978;Heidensohn 1968;Smart 1976;Klein 1973). Explaining women's offending was high on the agenda (Carlen 1988;Cook 1987;Leonard 1982;Heidensohn 1985;Simon 1975).…”