'Feminist theorising and research on crime within the family has transformed fundamentally criminological understanding of the problem of crime' Discuss.

The first 200 words of this essay...

Seminar Leader: Keith Hayward Natalie Norwood

'Feminist theorising and research on crime within the family has transformed fundamentally criminological understanding of the problem of crime' Discuss.

The Sage Dictionary of Criminology1 defines family Crime as a "generic term which draws attention to the extent and range of violence and abuse in 'private' domestic life". Family crime or domestic violence has been a hidden crime for many decades.

The woman's movement in the 1970's broke the silence on issues which related to the victimisation of women in the private sphere. These issues included childhood abuse, incest, rape and domestic violence. Since that movement, women's experiences began to be discussed and noted. Feminist criminology started to become a noticeable part of criminology around the early 90's. Criminologists with the feminist perspective aim to increase female visibility within criminological knowledge. As well as this, they aim to understand crime as a male dominated activity produced not only as a result of sex differences but also as a product of gender differences. They question whether sex/gender have a place in crime, justice and criminological and justice theories. Feminist criminology is made up of many different theories; there is no one