Race, Crime, and Justice

A Reader

Shaun Gabbidon, Helen Taylor Greene, Shaun L. Gabbidon, Helen Taylor Greene

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135398637
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Criminology
• Index: Social Sciences

A comprehensive collection of the essential writings on race and crime, this important Reader spans more than a century and clearly demonstrates the long-standing difficulties minorities have faced with the justice system. The editors skillfully draw on the classic work of such thinkers as W.E.B. DuBois and Gunnar Myrdal as well as the contemporary work of scholars such as Angela Davis, Joan Petersilia, John Hagen and Robert Sampson. This anthology also covers all of the major topics and issues from policing, courts, drugs and urban violence to inequality, racial profiling and capital punishment. This is required reading for courses in criminology and criminal justice, legal studies, sociology, social work and race.

Women, Race, and Crime

Compared to other topics in criminology and criminal justice, females and their involvement in crime garnered very little attention until the latter part of the twentieth century. As the number of females arrested increased and as a cadre of female scholars, including feminist criminologists, emerged more interest in female crime resulted in substantive research on women and crime. Early writings about female criminality were theoretical and narrowly focused on female prisoners. For example, in the late nineteenth century Lombroso and Ferrero (1894) published The Female Offender. Cesare Lombroso, often referred to as the “Father of Criminology,” and Ferrero believed that women were not as evolved as men, and that female criminals had more masculine characteristics than other women. Although there were few studies of female criminals early in the century, most scholars asserted that these women were anomalies with biological or psychological deficiencies. Rarely did researchers consider the sociological context of women and their involvement in crime. Instead, emphasis was usually placed on their sexual deviance. After the 1960s, female criminologists called attention to the need to consider how societal and cultural factors contribute to female crime. Liberal, radical, and Marxist criminologists emphasized the importance of greater opportunities for women, patriarchy, and capitalism in explaining women's participation in criminal behavior. Since the 1970s, more attention has been devoted to other aspects of female criminality including sexual abuse victimization, domestic violence victimization, children of female offenders, and female involvement in serious crime. Today, in spite of increased interest, there is still limited research on women and crime generally, and women, race, and crime specifically.

Throughout most of the twentieth century research on women, race, and crime focused on black females. These females have comprised a majority of female offenders for at least three decades. In 2002, there were 36,000 black, 15,000 Hispanic, and 35,400 white female prisoners under state and federal jurisdiction (Harrison and Beck 2003). In spite of increased interest in female criminality there is very little research about the experiences of other women of color (Asians, Latinas, Native Americans). There is also a need for researchers to acknowledge that within racial/ethnic groups cultural diversity should be taken into consideration.

Adler (1975) (perhaps inadvertently) sparked interest in black women and crime when she made comparisons between black females and black males and black females and white females in an effort to understand female crime. Adler asserted that the “(B)lurring of social boundaries among blacks and its influence in making black females statistically more equal partners in crime with black males has interesting and important criminogenic implications for white women (1975, 140).” Adler, who studies under Marvin Wolfgang, relied heavily on his research on homicide offenders (Wolfgang 1958) and generalized his findings to other black and white female offenders. However, she rather naively overlooked the fact that white females were involved in crime in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as “sexual deviants,” and other types of offenders. Instead she posited that as white females' sex roles converged with those of white males (as did those of black females with those of black males) their involvement in crime would increase. Young (2002, [1980]), in one of the first empirical studies of women, race, and crime, used victimization data to test some of Adler's propositions. She concluded, “that there is no simplistic answer to the question of whether female offenders differ by race” (174).

The first chapter in this section is by Hans von Hentig. Originally published in 1942, it is one of the first of its kind to focus on “colored women.” Like other scholars of the time, von Hentig examines biological and psychological factors to understand female criminality. In a rather unique manner, he examines several factors including age, sex ratios, mortality rates, and admission to state institutions (for the insane), in a structural and cultural context. Unlike other early writers, he noted that the interaction of biological and psychological factors must be viewed in the context of environmental conditions including economics and marital status. He also noted that fear of the colored race by the white race could lead to discriminatory practices by the police. Von Hentig's telling comment about such fear is directly related to the importance of images.

Zatz and Mann (1998) examined how images of color and images of crime are racialized and gendered. They point to the role of images in perpetuating stereotypic perceptions. The second chapter in this section by Lynch and Huey examines how historical negative images of Black women impact criminological theories, social policies, and are passed on to future criminal justice academicians and practitioners. These distorted stereotypes of Black women as mammies, matriarchs, welfare moms, and jezebels are directly related to their experiences in the United States since slavery. The authors argue that these images are incorporated into criminological theories. For example, in the family, black women are often perceived to be either welfare moms or single parents who are unable to effectively socialize their children. They note that these stereotypes often go unchallenged and that factual information about mothers and their children is often omitted. For example, most black youth are lawabiding. The chapter concludes with an explanation of the importance of challenging these distorted images.

The third chapter in this section is by Jodi Miller, a female criminologist, well known in the discipline for her contributions to understanding female crime and delinquency. Increased concern with female participation in violent crimes such as robbery motivated Jodi Miller to examine female robbers in an urban environment. Miller examines and critiques several explanations for female participation in robbery including whether or not females desire to be masculine, are responding to either their victimization, (sub)cultural norms, or to the strain that results from race, gender, or economic oppression. Miller explores both why and how females and males engage in robbery to better understand the role of gender.

The final chapter in this section addresses women and domestic violence. West, Kantor, and Jasinski provide an interesting analysis of female responses to battering by examining, race, ethnicity, and cultural contexts. Unlike most research on this topic, the chapter provides a study of Latina women with different cultural backgrounds Mexican, Mexican American, and Puerto Rican. The chapter calls attention to the need to understand sociocultural differences in womens' responses to battering and how these differences impact service providers.

References

Adler, F. 1975. Sisters in Crime: The Rise of the New Female Criminal. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Harrison, P. M., & Beck, A. J. 2003. Prisoners in 2002. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Lombroso, C., and Ferrero, W. (1920 [1984]). The female offender. New York: Appleto.

Wolfgang, M. 1958. Patterns in criminal homicide. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Young, V. 2002. Women, race, and crime. In African American classics in criminology and criminal justice, eds. S. Gabbidon, H. Greene, & V. Young, 171–75. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications

Zatz, M. S., and Mann, C., R. 1998. The power of images. InImages of color. images of crime, eds. C. Mann & M.S. Zatz, 112. Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury Publishing.

9

The Criminalit...