Gender, Race, and Crime: The Evolution of a Feminist Research Agenda

Abstract

Over the last several decades, feminist scholars have advanced our understanding of the relationship between race, gender and crime. This body of work illustrates how gender inequality makes women more vulnerable to incarceration and punishment. Feminist criminologists who examine crime and victimization through the lens of intersectionality, especially women of color, have also worked to shift the scholarly focus from intersections of gender, race, and crime, which often focus on offending, to a consideration of the intersection of gender, race, and justice, which critically interrogates not only disparities in the distribution of justice, but also the ways that structural violence shapes the vulnerability of women of color to various forms of violence and punitive sanctions. New research and theorizations in this area, including Black feminist and intersectional research and writings, encourage us to move beyond gender binaries to examine the interrelationship between institutions (e.g., police, prisons, etc.) and gendered vulnerabilities to punishment and violence.