• Two levels of social reality
– Experiential (interactions)
– Structural (institutions)
– The characteristics of one level affect the status of the other level (and vice-versa)
– Gender relations & inequality are good examples of this

• The “Nature” of Gender
– Distinction between sex, gender & sexuality
• Sex – a biological reality (DNA, genitalia, hormaones, physiology)
• Sex Category –
– 2 category scheme: Male/Female
– Not necessarily so
• Gender – a social/cultural construct (Masculinity and Femininity)
• Sexuality – One’s sexual identity/orientation (debate about origin)
• Heterogender – a new idea that acknowledges how important sexuality is to the ways that gender is constructed

The social construction of gender:
“Doing Gender” concept (West & Zimmerman 1987)
• Gender accomplished in interaction with others
•“Accomplished” by providing cues that are consistent with normative expectations for masculinity and femininity
–Contextual
–Norm violations are “policed”
• Gender culturally understood as an “oppositional dichotomy”
• Doing gender means
–Creating differences b/t boys & girls and women & men that are not natural
–Using the socially constructed differences to reinforce the notion that gender (rather than sex) is “natural” or essentially derived.
•Multiple ways of doing gender even for the same sex

Gender and Power Relations
Acker (1990) on Organizations & Gender
– Neutrality is “gendered” in the context of organizations
–Organizational life is patterned and active in distinguishing between male and female:
•Division of Labor
•Images & Symbols that reinforce gender difference
•Interactions of workers

Gender and Power Relations
Sexism:
–Oppressive attitudes and behaviors directed at either sex
–Patterned: mostly directed at women
Patriarchy:
–The Social, Legal & Cultural climate that values men and masculine over alternatives
–Based on a confusion over sex and gender

Assignment 1
1. What is feminism?
2. Are you a feminist?
– Why or why not?

An approach to thinking about society and social problems that recognizes that gender inequalities exist in society.
In addition, feminists are committed to helping change society to promote gender equality
5 Tenets (derived from Daly and Chesney-Lind 1988 – see p. 13 in Belknap):
1.
Gender is not a natural fact – it is an outcome of social, political, historical and cultural forces. It is related to sex differences and reproductive capacities – but is not simply a reflection of these differences. (Sex, Sex category &
Gender)

2.
Gender and gender relations order social life and social institutions in fundamental ways.
3.
Constructs of masculinity and femininity are not symmetrical
(equal). They are based on the organizing principle of men’s superiority and social and political dominance over women.
4.
Systems of knowledge reflect men’s views of the natural and social world: the production of knowledge is “gendered”.
5.
Women should be at the center of intellectual inquiry, not peripheral, invisible, or appendages to men.

1. Feminists are not objective
2. Feminism is only concerned with women
3.
There is only one “true” feminism

1.
Feminists are not objective
Are non-feminists objective? What is objectivity? Is it possible?
2.
Feminism is only concerned with women
Masculinity studies
3.
There is only one “true” feminism
A variety of feminisms:
Liberal-feminists vs. Critical feminists
Varieties of Critical Feminists: Marxist Feminists, Socialist
Feminists, Radical Feminists, Postmodern Feminists

• Criminology is a science focused on the study of crime, law and responses to crime.
• Criminologists
– Construct theoretical explanations for crime
– Pose research questions
– Develop hypotheses
– Test their theories
– Collect data using a wide variety of research methods
– MUCH of criminology is POSITIVIST

– Classical Criminology
– Positivist Criminology
– Sociological Criminology
– All 3 eras continue to influence criminology
(and crime policy) today

• Cesare Beccaria (1738-94) spawned the idea that human behavior is governed by objective rationality
• A radical idea: individuals have free will.
• Rationality assumes that people are driven to seek pleasure and minimize pain.
• Crime was thought to be an outcome of rationality.
• Central to developing a scientific (“modern”) penal policy

• Late 1800s: Building on the predictive elements of the Classical
School
• Emphasizes the importance of the scientific method of observation.
• Positivists are empiricists. Belief in objectivity.
• Positive School criminologists, following breakthroughs in other sciences, argued that crime is an outcome of factors outside of human control.
• Control of crime is possible if you can unlock the underlying causes and address them.
• Early Positivists developed theories & tested hypotheses about what factors (outside of human control) led to criminal activity among some members of society but not others. Focus on personality, biology, pathology of one sort or another.
• Studied criminals, observed similarities and extrapolated.
Problems with this?

• Positivists that emphasized social factors as antecedents to crime
• Durkheim
• social facts
• crime as a normal/functional part of society
• anomie and the shift from pre-industrial to modern societies (suicide rates as an example)
• Marx
• Focuses on how the economy impacts all other aspects of society
• mode of economic production (capitalism) determines all social relations
• 2 fundamental economic positions (or classes): Owners/Workers
• Social Class inequality important in a critical criminology
• American Sociology (Chicago School: Symbolic
Interaction, Urbanism)
• The self as a social product
• Urban development patterns and its impact on community life

• Concerned with explaining the impact of gender in traditional areas of inquiry about crime and the law
• Concerned with the experiences of women as central
• Likely to employ a wider variety of techniques to gather information about crime and women’s experiences.
– Epistemology
– Research on rape as an example

What do we know about the extent of rape?
Most rapes go unreported (about 2 out of 3)
Accurate estimates are difficult.
Why?
• Victim stigma and blame (victims wrongly believe rapists vocabulary of motive is valid)
• Offender/Victim relationship
• Concern about treatment as victim in the CJS
• Up to 70% of women forced to have sex fail to recognize their experience as rape
• This is a reflection of a patriarchal culture that impacts the way that the law and the criminal justice system operates
Between 15% and 30% of U.S. women will be raped in their lifetime
Of the rapes that get reported to police, only 15% to 30% end in the conviction of the rapist, and only half of those result in a sentence of more than 1 year in jail.

None of this “factual” data tells us anything about the experience of rape. For example,
• Why do so many men in our society rape?
• Why do trusted friends and romantic partners rape?
• Why do so few women recognize sexual assaults as criminal?
• Why does the criminal justice system treat rape victims with suspicion?
• How has the law impacted the ways we define rape and protected men from blame in the process?
• How has the criminal investigation procedure limited our understanding of sexual assault and rape?

• What is Crime?
– Violations of Morality
– Violations of Norms
– Violations of the Law
• Acts that represent an intersection of all 3 are judged the most severe

Legal Classifications of Crimes
– Criminal vs. Torte (Civil) Law
– a public wrong?
– state vs. private party action
– incarceration vs. monetary damages
– fines to state vs. fines to private party
– standard of proof
– Administrative Law
– Mala in se vs. Mala prohibitum
– Felony & Misdemeanor
– How is law made?
• Legislation
• Court Decisions

What purpose does law serve a society & its members?
– Social control
– Expressions of social morality
– Limits on revenge/anarchy
– Deterrence
– Retribution
– Maintenance of the status quo
• Marxists: social order in capitalist society; private property
• Feminists: social order in a gendered society; social subordination of women

Because Criminology – like most disciplines – is
Androcentric.
What is Androcentrism?
1. Focusing solely on the experiences of men.
2.
Assuming the men’s experiences describe the human experience
3.
This is what Belknap calls the “invisibility of women” in criminology.