SOC216 – Feminist & Critical Criminology: Problematizing the State (Guest Edition)

Abstract

Feminism has a bad rep, but it’s an important social movement fighting for equality across sex, gender, race in our society. Right on the heels of Alabama and Georgia passing some of the most restrictive abortion laws that criminalize mothers and doctors who perform abortions, this week’s episode features a guest expert, Dr. Nicholas Chagnon, who helps us untangle the perspectives of critical feminism and feminist criminology. Learn how these perspectives analyze women’s reproductive rights, as well as how they approach criminology from a female-centered perspective.

Transcription

Find a transcription for this episode here. Big thanks to Mallorie Watts for transcribing this episode! Mahalo nui loa!

Keywords

Feminism, criminology, critical criminology, feminist criminology, reproductive rights, the nation state

Sources

• A few primer episodes to listen to:

1. SOC107 – Who You Gonna Call? The Crimebusters!
2. SOC204 – The Spectrum: An Introduction to Sex and Gender
3. SOC205 – The Matrices of Oppression: An Introduction to Intersectionality
4. SOC208 – Left Handed Devils: The Social Construction of Deviance
5. SOC 214 – Reproductive Politics: The Body as a Site of Political Struggle

• Dr. Meda Chesney-Lind (University of Hawaii at Manoa) is considered by many to be one of the founders of Feminist Criminology. One of her many works include The Female Offender: Girls, Women, and Crime (2003).
• Amy Bach’s Ordinary Injustice, a great book that gives you a glimpse into the criminal justice system
• One of Dr. David Johnson’s many works:The Japanese Way of Justice: Prosecuting Crime in Japan (2002)
• The media is fascinated with “women gone bad” or “bad mothers,” and here are some links to examples we gave
  • Aileen Wuornos, who was executed in 2002 for killing Johns she met while she was a sex worker
  • Her story was turned into a film starring Charlize Theron in 2003 titled “Monster,” for which Theron won an Academy Award.
• “Snapped” a TV show on Oxygen about women who have killed their partners
• Recent legislation in Texas that would grant prosecutors the right to give the death penalty to women who had abortions.
• H’onoponopono, Native Hawaiian tradition of conflict resolution
• And did you know Kim Kardashian-West is planning on becoming, “Kim Kardashian-West JD”? Yuuuuup!