Women and CrimeActs or omissions that violate criminal laws and are punishable by the state. (1985) by British sociologist Frances Heidensohn is considered the founding text of modern feminist criminology. As one of the first scholars in the field, Heidensohn systematically analyzed why women had long been ignored, misrepresented, or solely portrayed as victims in criminology—and why existing theories of crime failed to account for the lived experiences of women. Today, the book is widely recognized as a key work offering a gender-critical perspective on deviance, control, and criminal justice.
Key Points
Women and Crime by Frances Heidensohn
Author: Frances Heidensohn
First published: 1985
Country: United Kingdom
Key topics: feminist criminology, gender, social control, double standard, patriarchy
Method: theoretical critique, secondary analysis, feminist perspective
Content: Heidensohn critiques the male dominance in criminology and demonstrates how social control, criminalization, and deviance are shaped by gender. She argues for gender to be treated as a central category of analysis in criminological research.
Related theories: intersectional criminology, queer criminology, cultural criminology
Background and Context
Women and Crime was published at a time when feminist theories were gaining increasing visibility in academia. Heidensohn responded to the double absence of women in criminology: on the one hand, women were nearly invisible as active subjects in research; on the other, when they were mentioned at all, they were portrayed in pathologizing ways (e.g., in the works of Lombroso/Ferrero or Otto Pollak). Her analysis is also a direct response to the so-called „malestream criminology“—a male-centered perspective that presented male behavior as the norm.
Research Perspective and Method
Heidensohn adopts a theoretically informed and interdisciplinary approach. She analyzes canonical criminological texts, sociological theories, and official statistics from a gender-critical perspective. Her method is both deconstructive—highlighting blind spots and biased assumptions—and constructive: she advocates for the systematic integration of gender in the analysis of deviant behavior and social control mechanisms.
Key Arguments
Heidensohn observes that women have been marginalized in criminological theory for decades. Neither classical nor contemporary models adequately explained why women commit fewer crimes or how gendered socialization and control contribute to the disciplining of female behavior.
Her central thesis is that social control is gendered. While male deviance is often framed in terms of autonomy, risk-taking, or subculture, female deviance tends to be moralized—as a personal flaw, psychological weakness, or sexual transgression. Heidensohn introduces the concept of a „double standard of morality“, in which women are more harshly sanctioned—not only legally, but also socially and culturally.
She also criticizes that classic crime theories—such as strain or subcultural theories—are based on male life experiences and ignore gender as a structural category. Heidensohn thus calls for a theoretical shift that centers gender as a key analytic tool and that draws on the everyday experiences of women—in family life, the workplace, and socialization processes.
Reception and Influence
Women and Crime quickly became a standard reference in feminist criminology. It influenced subsequent authors such as Pat Carlen, Carol Smart, and Linda C. Daly, as well as the later development of queer criminology (e.g., Buist & Lenning, 2015). Heidensohn’s work laid the theoretical foundation for a gender-conscious criminology that addresses questions of power, normativity, identity, and social control.
Since then, feminist criminology has diversified—through intersectional approaches that combine gender with racism, class, or sexuality (e.g., Angela Y. Davis, Michelle Alexander), or through masculinity-oriented theories such as James Messerschmidt’s concept of structured action. Still, Heidensohn’s critique of the discipline’s gender blindness remains a crucial point of reference.
Feminist criminology emerged from the critique of male-dominated crime research. It addresses not only women’s deviant behavior but also their structural disadvantages in socialization, law enforcement, and criminal policy. Key issues include gender-specific social control, the influence of patriarchal norms, and the visibility of violence against women. Since the 1990s, the field has increasingly incorporated intersectional and queer-feminist approaches.
Conclusion
Frances Heidensohn’s Women and Crime marks a turning point in criminology: it foregrounds women’s experiences, questions traditional gender roles, and challenges the male-centered foundations of the discipline. The book paved the way for numerous developments—from empirical studies on female offending to intersectional analyses of criminal justice. As the first comprehensive foundational text in feminist criminology, it remains an essential reference for understanding the intersections of gender, power, and control in the study of crime.
References
- Heidensohn, Frances (1985): Women and Crime. London: Macmillan.
- Carlen, Pat (1988): Women, Crime and Poverty. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
- Buist, Carrie L. / Lenning, Emily (2015): Queer Criminology. New York: Routledge.
- Davis, Angela Y. (2003): Are Prisons Obsolete? New York: Seven Stories Press.
- Messerschmidt, James W. (1993): Crime as Structured Action. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
- Alexander, Michelle (2010): The New Jim Crow. New York: The New Press.
