Women and Crime Prevention (From Crime Prevention in Australia: Issues in Policy and Research, P 84-104, 1997, Pat O'Malley and Adam Sutton, eds. -- See NCJ-184267)

• NCJ Number: 184271
• Author(s): Sandra Egger
• Date Published: 1997
• Length: 21 pages
• Sale Source: Federation Press (Distributed by Gaunt)
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Collected Work
• Language: English
• Country: Australia

Annotation

This paper examines some influential radical feminist critiques of crime prevention for women, and suggests that the constraints imposed on crime prevention policies for women in these critiques arise in part from a theoretical perspective that fails to accommodate what is known about violence in general and about violence against Australian women in particular.

Abstract

Feminist explanations of violence constituted the most significant theoretical development in theories of the causes of violent crime in Australia in the 1980's. The recognition that most violence is perpetrated by males has challenged explanations of violence developed in all criminological traditions. Theories that emphasize structural causes, micro-social and situational causes, psychological and individual causes, or biological causes should now incorporate gender as a theoretical construct, especially as males commit 89 percent of homicide, 91 percent of violent property, 90 percent of assault, and virtually all sexual assault offenders. Feminist explanations of violence draw on the social construction of masculinity in patriarchal societies; the preservation of male power, authority, and status over women is achieved through a socially constructed masculinity in which violence is an instrumental and expressive tool of oppression. The author considers the lack of critical analysis of crime prevention programs for Australian women, constraints imposed by theory, risk of victimization by violence, and the future of crime prevention programs for women. 75 references