Feminist Victimology part I:
Focus on Gendered Victimisation
Week 7
SGM2058: Victimology
2023/24
Dr Riikka Kotanen
, Lecture Outline
• Rise of the victim-centred victimology
• The feminist critique
• Gendered victimisation
• Gendered forms of victimisation
• Scale of gendered victimisation
• Experiences of victimisation
• Coercive control as an example
• Expanding the gendered agenda
• Gendering victimology: What have we learnt? What we still need
to do?
, Rise of the ‘Victim-Centered’
Victimology
• Victimisation before and after the crime
• Expansion of types and forms of
criminal victimisation
• Process and dynamics of causes and
consequences of victimisation
Differential vulnerability and experiences
Gendered risks and consequences of
victimisation
• Victim surveys → the repetitive and
systematic nature of (gendered)
victimisation
→ The victims’ voice (?)
, The Feminist Critique
Critique of criminology and sociology of deviance in the late 1960s
and 1970s:
• Understandings, explanations and interpretations related to crime are
dominated by men → (White) men studying other men from a male perspectiv
• First feminist criminological studies (e.g., Heidenshon 1968) → Carol Smart’s
‘Women, Crime, and Criminology’ (1977) as the key publication
• Some of the key points:
Women either neglected or explained by reference to biology/physiology →
Individual biological and pathological determinism
Role of patriarchy and social structures → Gender bias and discrimination
Introducing new concepts: marginalisation, oppression, social control, male
domination…
Treatment of women in the CJS as perpetrators and victims
→ Gender specific features of crime and victimisatio
, ‘It is only by facing
challenge of feminism
victimology (and
criminology) will beg
engage the possibiliti
a really progressiv
agenda.’
(Walklate, 1994:8
, Gendered Victimisation
− Research, Activism and Advocacy
Critical tasks for feminist
victimology:
• Unearthing and explaining the extent and
nature of gendered victimisation
• Campaigning for legislation and policies to
recognise, protect, and support the victims
• ‘Carceral feminist’ position: Campaigning
for state action against perpetrators
New criminalisations
Sentencing and punishments to fit the crime
• Campaigning for socio-cultural changes for
prevention of GSV
• De-normalisation of gendered victimisation
Focus on Gendered Victimisation
Week 7
SGM2058: Victimology
2023/24
Dr Riikka Kotanen
, Lecture Outline
• Rise of the victim-centred victimology
• The feminist critique
• Gendered victimisation
• Gendered forms of victimisation
• Scale of gendered victimisation
• Experiences of victimisation
• Coercive control as an example
• Expanding the gendered agenda
• Gendering victimology: What have we learnt? What we still need
to do?
, Rise of the ‘Victim-Centered’
Victimology
• Victimisation before and after the crime
• Expansion of types and forms of
criminal victimisation
• Process and dynamics of causes and
consequences of victimisation
Differential vulnerability and experiences
Gendered risks and consequences of
victimisation
• Victim surveys → the repetitive and
systematic nature of (gendered)
victimisation
→ The victims’ voice (?)
, The Feminist Critique
Critique of criminology and sociology of deviance in the late 1960s
and 1970s:
• Understandings, explanations and interpretations related to crime are
dominated by men → (White) men studying other men from a male perspectiv
• First feminist criminological studies (e.g., Heidenshon 1968) → Carol Smart’s
‘Women, Crime, and Criminology’ (1977) as the key publication
• Some of the key points:
Women either neglected or explained by reference to biology/physiology →
Individual biological and pathological determinism
Role of patriarchy and social structures → Gender bias and discrimination
Introducing new concepts: marginalisation, oppression, social control, male
domination…
Treatment of women in the CJS as perpetrators and victims
→ Gender specific features of crime and victimisatio
, ‘It is only by facing
challenge of feminism
victimology (and
criminology) will beg
engage the possibiliti
a really progressiv
agenda.’
(Walklate, 1994:8
, Gendered Victimisation
− Research, Activism and Advocacy
Critical tasks for feminist
victimology:
• Unearthing and explaining the extent and
nature of gendered victimisation
• Campaigning for legislation and policies to
recognise, protect, and support the victims
• ‘Carceral feminist’ position: Campaigning
for state action against perpetrators
New criminalisations
Sentencing and punishments to fit the crime
• Campaigning for socio-cultural changes for
prevention of GSV
• De-normalisation of gendered victimisation
