NCJ Number
79874
Journal
Tijdschrift voor criminologie Volume: 21 Issue: 5 Dated: special issue (September/October 1979) Pages: complete issue
Editor(s)
H Bianchi
Date Published
1979
Length
56 pages
Annotation
A series of essays by Dutch women criminologists examines criminology and criminological research in the Netherlands from the female perspective.
Abstract
In this view, criminological reseach has long been dominated by men, who tend to focus mainly on male offenders and to portray women as either madonnas or whores, with no possible middle path. Male research efforts have traditionally been devoted to the public sector, in this context to prostitution. Not until women entered the field of criminology was emphasis shifted to the private sphere and to such matters as abuse and rape within families. Reflecting this general orientation, the essays in the collection relate to the tendency of the criminal justice system to interpret criminal behavior of women as psychologically aberrant, to theories which explain behavior of female delinquents from psychological, biological, and sociological perspectives, and to views on how best to introduce feminine elements into criminology. Also included are a theoretical study of criminal behavior in general also encompassing an explanation of why shoplifting is the most common offense committed by women, and a study of the discriminatory treatment of women by the police and courts in cases involving offenses such as rape and assault. Notes, tables, and bibliographies are supplied for the separate essays.