INTRODUCTION
Does the phrase “gender justice” ever pique your interest? Since ancient times, people have demonstrated equal rights all around the world. Equal rights apply to males and women, blacks and whites, and the wealthy and the poor. All throughout the world, feminism is becoming more popular. Demands for equal rights, equal compensation at work, and the advancement of women as a gender are being made by feminists on the streets.
Influential figures like Michelle Obama, Emma Watson, Jameela Jamil, Beyoncé, and many more are also educating the public on the empowerment of women. But the main issue here is the ideology that feminists espouse or the definition of feminism. Therefore, the question is: What is feminism’s relationship to criminology? Or how even the two connected? Criminology, as we all know, is the study of crime and abnormal conduct. Feminist criminology is simply an intersectional method of viewing the criminal underworld through a glass that is gender-filtered. Why does someone commit a crime in the first place? Is the conventional central question when studying the field of criminology? The motivations for his actions may have been avarice, rage, envy, retaliation, or pride. Crimes can also be the result of irrational behavior motivated by fury or fear. The majority of these criminals who receive sentences are often men, according to a study that criminology researchers have been conducting for many years. Male and female imprisonment rates are diametrically opposed. Out of 433k convicts in India’s prisons, 414k are men, or 95.73%of the total, according to a review of prison statistics, while only 18k are women, or 4.27%of the total. That, however, does not indicate prejudice. Yes, there might be a difference in the traits that men and women possess. In general, men can be more aggressive than women, and they tend to breach the law more frequently. When men and women are both detained for the same offense, there is a critical point of divergence since women are far less likely to get the same treatment as males. The sentence above basically says that different genders receive different penalties for the same offense. When a woman is found guilty, the community frequently assumes that she may have done the crime because “she was mentally ill.” They are arguing that “she is good but angry In contrast, when it comes to males, the most common remarks that are made are “he must have done something out of fury.” The opinions diverge at this point.
Modern criminology, on the other hand, examines the context in which crimes were committed. This is very unlike the conventional one, which just looks at a person’s actions. Feminist criminology is a novel idea that has emerged in contemporary criminology; it emphasizes how social roles vary in different societies. When we include this element in criminology, it causes the roles of men and women in society to become disjointed, which takes us down a whole other route. Some feminist criminologists think that when evaluating a specific crime, men and women should be handled differently.
Women are typically the victims of rape, stalking, coercive control, and domestic violence, according to the majority of feminist criminologists. Another concern is why women are less prone than males to commit crimes. In conclusion, gender is a factor when examining crime trends. Therefore, feminist criminology is a developing area of legal study, and it is undeniable that feminist criminology will be a hot issue in the next years. It shouldn’t be seen as a legal distinction between the sexes, though. It should be regarded as a study developing a whole branch to handle criminal difficulties more particularly. After all, we all work for equality and as a woman, I want to underline that at the end of the day, all we really want is to be treated equally with everyone else. Women’s perspectives on the world are included in the literature on crime, criminality, and reactions to crime by feminist criminologists who want to emphasize gender in the conversation. The next parts will concentrate on the development of feminist criminology, the variety of viewpoints and research methodologies, and the maturation of feminist criminology in terms of scholarship and visibility.
SCOPE
Feminist criminology tackles the flaws in the criminal justice system that prevent it from taking into account the significant variations between the ways that men and women commit crimes, the sorts of crimes they do, the victims they inflict upon, and the punishments they receive. The study’s foundations are male crime and how the criminal justice system handles male criminals. Researchers and students of criminology claim that historically, it has been thought that when investigating a general crime, it would be a study of male crime and that a crime committed by a woman would be somewhat of an exception. Here’s how the practice was challenged, and female criminology started to develop.
CONCLUSION
Feminist criminology has changed and developed significantly throughout time. However, despite the fact that feminist study has been published, it can be seen and inferred that it still suffers from numerous forms of marginalization. Even mainstream publications only publish a small amount of feminist study, and textbooks are no different—they pay very little attention to the theories of feminist criminology and their applicability.
Author’s Name: Akarsha Bajpai (University of Lucknow, Lucknow)
