NCJ Number
141064
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Education Volume: 3 Issue: 2 Dated: special issue (Fall 1992) Pages: 223-236
Date Published
1992
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This research compares the coverage of women and crime topics in all 15 known introductory criminology textbooks published from 1956 to 1965 and all 29 textbooks published from 1981 to 1990.
Abstract
Results revealed few changes over time, either in the number of pages focusing on women and crime topics or in the women and crime topics discussed most often by textbook authors. The increases in pages of coverage in recent textbooks were not statistically significant. In addition, most of this increased coverage focused on rape; topics such as domestic assault and sexual harassment were largely ignored. Several sexist themes regarding females as criminals and crime victims also appeared often in the older textbooks and reappeared all too frequently in the newer books. Rape myths that blame female victims, but exonerate male offenders, are still fairly common, as are negative comments about the sexual liberation of modern women. Although female offenders and victims are no longer routinely stereotyped as vamps and tramps, often they are denigrated more subtly as flirts and teases who provoke their own victimization and manipulate guileless men. Thus, these textbooks authors distort the nature of current empirical research in criminology and risk reproducing the sexist misconceptions found in the wider culture. Tables, appended list of textbooks surveyed, and 47 references (Author abstract modified)