The Theory of

Feminism
Reporter: Nasra Cañete Realino
Any idea on Feminism?
Feminism on Crime Causation and Deviance
• Advocates of this theory react highly criticize the male
dominance explanation of crime causation and
deviancy. It holds that crime causation and
explanation of deviancy centered mainly on male
offender; thereby, leaving a gap and void as to study
and understanding of female offender and deviancy.
• The perspective of this theory is women’s
victimization, delinquency, and gender inequality. It
highly criticizes the traditional mainstream
criminology of stereotyping where crimes and
delinquency is heavily focused on male subjects in
which research on crimes is mostly on male
offenders.
• Feminism approach attempts to examine if women
delinquency and criminal behavior can be
incorporated into the mainstream of deviance theory.
The contention of the advocates of feminism is that,
whether, for instance, the theory on anomie, social
control tradition and social disorganization theory can
also be applied on women’s delinquency.
Feminist School of Thought:
Liberal Feminism
• Is simply the idea that those liberal
ideas of equality and rights of liberties
apply to women.
• Liberal feminism has been particularly
associated with the ideas of formal
equality and the equality of
opportunity, although contemporary
liberal theories such as that of Ronald
Dworkin also subscribe to stronger
principles of equality of concern and
respect.
• According to this school of thought,
women’s deviance is a rational
response to the gender discrimination
that women experience at work, in
marriage and other relationships (e.g.
lack of opportunity leads to lack of
education/employment, which leads to
deviance.
Radical Feminism
• According to this school of thought,
patriarchy, meaning that, male
domination over males, keeps women
more attached to the family, children
and home. Women are supposed to be
domestically bound so that when they
detach from domestic roles, they are
most likely to be singled out as deviant.
• In the case of prostitution, for instance,
women are most likely to be arrested
and charged than their male
counterpart because of the domestic
perception labeled against them.
Gender inequality plays a vital part
here, although, under the law, they
should and must be equally guilty.
Radical feminists consider sexual
difference as having a certain priority in
social life. Sexual difference is viewed
as structural.
Distinction between Liberal and Radical Feminism

• Radical Feminist accepts • In contrast, Liberal

structural sexualisation Feminism, often accept
between man and woman hierarchical ordering, but
but seeks to reverse the seek to reverse the
valuation of such variance. sexualisation of the
• It does not argue for dichotomies, arguing that
equality of both sexes but women are every bit
seek greater recognition of capable of reason, as
the emotive, affective and entitled to inhabit public
feminine in social practice. sphere, as capable of
activity and intellectual
power objectivity, as are
men.
Social Feminism
• This school of thought argues
that women deviancy is the by
– product of exploitation of
capitalism and patriarchy.
• Fewer economic resources,
opportunities and low paying
jobs availability are just left
over of men who dominate
capitalism. Women are
exploited by capitalism and
patriarchy and as a result, they
are left with fewer
opportunities. These factor lead
to deviancy.
 Steven Box and Chris Hale
Female Liberation Theory and Criminality
• Steven Box and Chris Hale debunked the theory as claimed by
many scholars in the field of criminology which support the
theory that Women Liberation and Emancipation leads to the
increase of female offending.
• Data relating to England and Wales for 1951 – 1980 are used
to test these competing explanations for changes in female
criminality. The results give little support to the
emancipation/liberation causes female crime hypothesis, but do
provide limited support for the marginalization thesis.
Female Criminality
• Adler wanted to debunk the
stereotypical view of society to
women and female criminals as
genetically passive. She
believes that women are not
genetically passive. She wanted
to reveal the effect of the
independence of women to
criminality.
• According to Adler, female
criminal activity is based on
access and opportunity. Adler
further argued that as females
become more independent; their
crimes would increase and
severity.
• According to Box and Hale, the increase in female
criminality and deviancy has nothing to do with
liberation and/or emancipation. Instead they noted
that the increase in female offending is more likely
due to poverty and economic recession. Further, they
also consider the following aspect as leads to the
increase of increased in the recording of female
criminality:
1) Increase of number of female officers as a possible
factor of influencing the recording.
2) Perception of a greater liberation among women has
been sensationalized and has sensitized authorities
to the problem and lead to a greater likelihood of
female offenders being recorded.
Analysis and Discussion
• The demand of women for gender equality
plays a vital factor in the increase of
criminality of women. Gone are the days
were women are treated by the public, the
police and the court as a passive individual
and which should be treated in a chivalrous
manner.
• Women power is now vogue. If we look
around and in every places of the world,
women are asserting dominance in the public
and private sector and even in the military
and police where it is used to be a male
arena.
• As such, the economic marginalization
between men and women and the equality
society treated lead to women the same
opportunity with men to commit crime and
deviancy. In fact because of their aura, they
are even more dangerous than men as they
can easily penetrate the corridor of women
using their charm.
Female Criminality
• Freda Adler (Sisters in Crime:
The Rise of Female Criminal)
published in 1975, proposes
that the global acceptance of
equality between men and
women allowed women to be as
crime prone than men.
• She believed that increased
economic and political
opportunities for women, have
forced their way to be more
visible to crimes, more
particularly white collar crime,
and, thus, to be as crime prone
as men.
Female Criminality
• The theory advanced by Freda
Adler. Her theory on female
criminality is anchored on:
1) Opportunity; and;
2) Accessibility
• According to Adler’s theory,
females commit crime based on
accessibility and opportunity in a
number of situations. Those
situations are often influenced
by the females socio –
economic status. As females
gained more independence in
society, their access to more
serious criminal opportunities
increased.
Freda Adler
Freda Adler (born 1934) is a criminologist and
educator, currently serving as Professor
Emeritus at Rutgers University and a visiting
Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
She was President of the American Society of
Criminology in 1994-1995. She has acted as a
consultant to the United Nations on criminal
justice matters since 1975, holding various
roles within United Nations organizations. A
prolific writer, Adler has published in a variety
of criminological areas, including female
criminality, international issues in
crime, piracy, drug abuse, and social
control theories.
 Applicability of Adler’s Theory to Typical Crimes
• Typical refers to a class or
classification in describing
a variety of crimes the
female gender to commit.
These types of crimes do
not require a degree of
physical strength which
men used most often in the
commission of crimes, and
include, but not limited to
the following:
• Prostitution
• Shoplifting
• Murder
 Applicability of Adler’s Theory to Typical Crimes
• Prostitution
For instance, women have bodies
to market, so, in order to feed their
needs, they become prostitutes.
Here, they have easy opportunity
to make quick bucks or money
without sweating it out, just like an
ordinary worker do, and they can
easily have access to such activity
because sex easily sell.
 Applicability of Adler’s Theory to Typical Crimes
• Shoplifting
Women love shopping, if not
shopaholic. So, when women
have the means to buy her stuff
she loves, shopping provides her
the straightforward opportunity to
steal. Women’s passion for
shopping can be viewed as an
access which gives window of
opportunity to commit crimes in a
mall or department store.
 Applicability of Adler’s Theory to Typical Crimes
• Murder
This crime that female may commit
usually involve with someone with
whom she had relationship. Victims
are usually male with whom the
female had an intimate relationship,
spouses or children. According to
Adler, female criminals have
relationship with their victims,
thereby providing an opportunity for
the crime. This crime could be
caused by mental illness, sexual or
emotional abuse, rejection by family
members or peers, financial
difficulties or other similar factors.
(Armentrout Thesis: An Analysis on
Adler’s Theory and the Female
Criminal).
 Applicability of Adler’s Theory to Typical Crimes
• Adler also states, physical
limitations may affect the role
females play in certain crimes if
not provided with weapons to
compensate for a lack of physical
strength. Should the crime
involve some form of
confrontation or strength, the
female is either acting alongside
a male accomplice or utilizing a
weapon such as a gun to
balance her smaller physical
build. Additionally, the female
may use deceit in acts of murder
or robbery. The deceit could be
displayed in many ways including
poisoning her victim.
Conclusion and Recommendation of Adler’s Theory
• Adler’s Theory on Female
Criminals is, in essence, finds
applicability, even up to the
present and in the Philippine
settings, as to female criminality
and deviancy. However, her theory
cannot and should not be
considered as part of Feminist
Criminology because it failed to
consider the structural and cultural
forces that shape women’s lives
and experiences.
• In other words, her theory ignored
the gender relations that
constitutes and are constituted by
the society in which we all live.
(Criminological Theories: Bridging
the Past to the Future, p. 231:
Sage Publications, 2002).
Conclusion and Recommendation of Adler’s Theory
• Simply put, Adler’s Theory appears to be within the framework of
traditional mainstream criminology.
Thank you for listening!!!
 Presentor:

Nasra Cañete Realino