Gender, Crime and Criminal Justice(2nd Ed.)

Vol. 14 No.10 (October 2004), pp.823-825

GENDER, CRIME AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE (2^nd ed), by Sandra Walklate. Willan Publishing, 2004. 240pp. Paperback. £17.99 / $29.50. ISBN 1-84392-068-9.

Reviewed by Mary W. Atwell, Department of Criminal Justice, Radford University. matwell@radford.edu

What sets this book apart from the dozens of others dealing with gender and criminal justice produced in recent years? Unlike many works that examine the topic, this book is a sort of mega-study of both criminology and victimology. Walklate repeatedly notes that she is not writing about women and crime, but about how masculinity (or masculinities) and femininity (or femininities) are correlated with crime. Her attention to the discipline of victimology is especially unusual and valuable. The author notes that in examining issues of gender and crime one must consult not just feminist theory but must also try to understand criminal behavior in all its facets through the lens of masculinity. She does not rehash at great length all the usual topics such as how certain approaches to punishment have a disparate impact on men and women. But perhaps that issue is particularly salient in the United States, where the “war on drugs” has taken its toll. The author is British, a professor at Manchester Metropolitan University. Although many of the issues discussed in the work transcend national boundaries, most of her sources and many of the examples from reports on criminal justice agencies are based on English studies. This is particularly true of the section dealing with policing, but even there, American readers will find that Walklate raises some useful questions.

Many studies that are informed by feminist work challenge mainstream (or what Walklate insists upon calling “malestream”) criminology for neglecting two questions—why is crime such an overwhelmingly male activity and why do a small percentage of women commit crimes. In other words, feminist criminology tries to address the overwhelming maleness of criminal behavior. Walklate rephrases that query, arguing that it is not sex (being a man) that correlates with crime and violence but that masculinity (how social processes interact with individuals to create a manly identity) provides a roadmap to understanding gender disparities in criminal behavior and to understanding when gender is a salient variable. She begins by investigating why criminology and victimology tend to ignore gender, and concludes that both disciplines emerged during a time when, like other social sciences, they accepted the traditional definition of scientific inquiry. This means they adhered to a view of rationality that limited how knowledge can be gathered and who can possess such knowledge. The result is to equate human experience with male experience. Feminist theory has tried both to dismantle this construction of knowledge and to call into question the dichotomy that identifies masculine with reason and feminine with emotion. One of the best sections of Walklate’s book is the discussion of the varieties of feminist [*824] theory. Although virtually every study of gender and crime attempts to explain how liberal, radical, socialist, and postmodern feminism approach questions differently, Walklate succeeds in making sense of those differences. This is one of the very few books where those murky theoretical debates come to life.

Another interesting and noteworthy section is the chapter that focuses on crime, fear, and risk. Although the writing in the chapter sometimes makes the reader feel that she is wading through molasses, the concepts merit attention. Walklate notes that in the last several decades, much of criminal justice policy focuses on an image of the victim (rather than on the image of the offender). National crime victimization surveys in both Britain and the United States have produced data that try to identify and operationalize the fear of crime. The surveys are typically based on the assumption that it is rational to avoid fear- provoking situations. If policymakers can understand the rational fears of the public, they can develop strategies to address those fears. However, gender enters the equation. What appears a reasonable fear to a woman, may not appear the same way to a man. Likewise, age and race may also be variables in the process. Finally, individuals may have developed ways to negotiate situations that are familiar to them in ways that have an impact on their sense of security or uncertainty. Walklate breaks some new ground in raising questions about whether men and women have different ways of reacting to situations that involve risk. Crime victimization studies assume that it is rational to avoid risk, but is this really consistent with socialized masculinity? Is not masculinity correlated with looking for excitement, adventure, power and control—and therefore with some degree of risk-seeking behavior? Do women ever engage in risk-seeking behavior and how does it differ? In other words, Walklate is arguing that danger and risk are deeply gendered experiences and that criminology and victimology should see them as such.

The chapter on sexual violence (rape and domestic violence) raises familiar but important themes: to what extent can sexual violence be seen as an ordinary experience; to what extent are such “ordinary” experiences the product of men’s behavior toward women; and to what extent are these experiences a product of ways in which men construct their masculinity. With respect to the last point, she notes that if social forces condition some men to commit violence as a form of masculinity, it may be valuable not just to ask how this occurs, but more importantly, to inquire of the men who do not commit violence why they do not.

Walklate titles one chapter, “Is Criminal Justice Work Men’s Work?” and raises the standard question of how gender pervades criminal justice occupations. The most interesting section concerns policing. Based on fairly recent government reports on British law enforcement, she tracks the debate about the purposes of policing—what is policing about and to whom is this service delivery addressed? If, as this report suggests, the work of police might be reconceived as service delivery rather than as the deployment of force, such an alternative perspective has significant implications for the gendered view of police organizations as hierarchical and [*825] militaristic. It has implications for the kinds of skills and expertise needed among police officers and involves no presumptions about the gender, age, ethnicity, or sexual orientation of those who have those skills. In other words, re-examining and redefining what constitute essential police activities, opens the door to rethinking who can best perform those activities, freed from gendered stereotypes.

GENDER, CRIME AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE is worth the reader’s time, partly as a comparative view for those who specialize in the American criminal justice system and partly for her emphasis on the need to examine victimology as well as criminology from a gendered perspective. Most of the book’s flaws are stylistic and organizational. These may bother some readers more than others. For example, the author repeatedly promises to explain a point she defines as significant, then follows that promise with “but first.” Why not just reorganize the section to put first things first? There is also a very strange use of quotation marks. Walklate sets off “domestic” violence, “victims,” “date” rape, “wife” rape, women’s “fear” of crime, and other words and phrases. Is the reader to assume that those are ironic usages, that “domestic” violence is really something else? One gathers that the author does not believe these phrases are accurate, but instead of constantly using quotes, why not use an acceptable term? Walklate also has a tendency to create Rube Goldberg terms—adding syllables on to what begins as a perfectly good word. She is fond of making verbs out of nouns—“foregrounding” comes to mind—and of using “conurbation” when “city” would be sufficient. In general, however, one can look past these minor annoyances to grasp the valuable questions Walklate raises.

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