This book brings together outstanding feminist scholars from a variety of disciplines (including sociology, criminology, anthropology, history, etc.), who describe, explain, and challenge the criminal justice system and its treatment of women. It provides a comprehensive overview of how women both affect and are affected by crime and the criminal justice system. This book is unique in its attempt to critically evaluate the ways in which systematic interrelating social structures of class, race, and gender impact on women offenders caught in the criminal justice system, women victims and survivors of male violence, and women who work throughout the criminal justice system. The book is appropriate for upper level undergraduates as well as graduate students. It is chock full of the latest research findings on many aspects of women offenders, victims and workers in the criminal justice system. This is done by means of original essays commissioned for the volume from leader scholars (especially criminologists and feminists), by selective replication of a number of recently published, important articles in the field, by providing extensive introductions to the four major sections of the book, and by the use of editorial comments and didactic questions at the beginning of each article.
