To find out what effect feminist criminology on domestic violence has made, it is important to look at various feminist theories that have been developed around this area of crime. As stated before, there is no one feminist criminology; therefore each theory may have had a different contribution to how the problem of crime is now understood.
Radical feminist criminology has described male violence against women as a ‘unitary phenomenon’ (Edwards, 1987). Radical feminists have described violence by men towards women as the “basis of men’s control over women”. To understand domestic violence as a problem of crime, the construction of masculinity must be examined in a sexist society. From this, it is believed that this society is primarily patriarchal and that male violence upholds the male supremacy and female subordination. Radical feminists have documented and developed understandings of women’s experiences and focus on how the women themselves define violence. Their main aim is to bring down patriarchal social order. Kelly and Radford (1987) claim that “a future free of the threat and reality of sexual violence requires nothing less than the total transformation of patriarchal relations”. Although this is a difficult goal to reach, especially in the short term, until then their aim is to have violence by men to be taken more seriously.
Radical feminist criminologists have made many attempts to raise more awareness to male violence and improve the authority’s response to women. However, it has been argued by Susan Edwards that although this seems a good approach in theory, some ‘feminist idealists’ have claimed that these authorities, such as the police and the law are all part of this patriarchal society. Therefore “legal change serves only to perpetuate the basic conditions of patriarchy”. It is suggested by Mackinnon (1989) than instead of changing man-made law, it would be much more beneficial to introduce a feminist jurisprudence based largely on women’s own experiences.
Radical feminism has made an impact on the way that crime in the family is viewed as a problem of crime but what they are suggesting, “the transformation of patriarchal relations”, would require such a vast change for the society that it does not seem like it’s achievable.
Liberal feminist approaches look at the biological differences between women and men and it is claimed that
Other types of feminist criminology and their link to domestic violence
RESEARCH
Statistics have always provided a source to assess and analyse crime and what were the main problems of crime but many feminists argued that these results were biased and limited. Madriz (1997) noted that because statistics focussed on “street crimes”, thus avoiding to look at other crimes committed against women.
Many more control strategies for domestic violence had been taken on due to some important factors. The main one focused on feminism was that of the women’s movement argument that the criminal justice system does not seem to differentiate violence against women from other violent crimes, such as an assault by a stranger. Domestic disturbance calls are not responded to with enough priority and the police prefer to calm the situation down or restore the order instead of arresting the offender. Due to this criticism by feminist critics, many more control strategies have been introduced to help deal with domestic violence cases and other violent attacks against women.
Feminist Theories
Feminist Research into domestic violence
Messerschmidt
Mr J. Messerschmidt (1993), a strong supporter of feminist views, believed that other more conventional theories of criminology did not provide a strong enough understanding of criminal behaviour because sex/gender was not included in their analysis. He also analyses patriarchal theories, claiming that although they do not avoid the gender issue, they do tend to categorise woman as the good party and men as the “bad, plain and simple”, rendering these theories incomplete.
CONCLUSION
Feminist contributions, based on research and theories around crimes of the family, towards the understanding of crime can be divided into two parts. Firstly, feminist criminology criticises other criminological theories of considering gender differences or for stereotyping women in sexist ways. Secondly, the term ‘women’ was always seen as a unified category
McLaughlin E. and Muncie J. The Sage Dictionary of Criminology, p 117
Mooney J., Gender, Violence and The Social Order, p88
Mooney, J., Gender, Violence and the Social Order, p102
Lilly J.R., Cullen F.T. and Ball R.A., Criminological Theory, p 172