Part 1 intends to introduce criminology as a discipline in its traditional form and discusses why a feminist criminology appears necessary. Until recently, criminology has been primarily focused on men and crime with little reference to women. Feminist criminology developed in the late 1960s and into the 1970s, and was closely associated with the emergence of the Second Wave of feminism at this time. Like most feminist issues, women and crime was mostly discussed from a male perspective and has been about men, for men and by men. Although the field of criminology comprises of offenders, victims and those who work within the criminal justice system such as the police, judges and various institutions, the following will concentrate on women as offenders.
Criminology refers to any kind of study concerned with crime and criminal justice.
It is a term used to include a multitude of topics and approaches. Feminist perspectives, over the past thirty years have not only put some new topics under the criminological cover, they have challenged the theories, concepts, methods and assumptions of most of the people already involved in the study of crime. Criminology, has for most feminist writers and researchers been a constraining rather than a constructive and creative influence. Theories of criminality have been developed from male subjects and validated on male subjects. Whilst there is nothing wrong with this, the problem is that these theories have been extended generally to include all criminals, defendants and prisoners.