Women, Crime and PovertyThe condition of lacking sufficient material resources to meet basic needs. (1988) is one of the most influential works of British criminologist Pat Carlen. Based on empirical research with women in the British criminal justice system, Carlen presents a groundbreaking feminist critique that links female criminality to structural poverty, social exclusion, and gender-specific forms of control. The book is considered a key work in feminist criminology and significantly shaped debates on the intersections of gender, class, and crime.
Key Points
Women, Crime and Poverty by Pat Carlen
Author: Pat Carlen
First Published: 1988
Country: United Kingdom
Key Topics: feminist criminology, poverty, social exclusion, gendered control, rationality vs. pathology
Method: qualitative interviews, ethnography, feminist theory
Content: Carlen challenges traditional theories of crime that neglect women’s experiences. Drawing from interviews with incarcerated women, she develops the concept of the “gendered penal system” and argues that women are often punished for failing to fulfill patriarchal gender roles.
Related Theories: Feminist CriminologyA criminological perspective that examines how gender and patriarchy shape crime, justice, and social control., Intersectional CriminologyThe scientific study of crime, criminal behavior, prevention, and societal reactions to deviance within and beyond the criminal justice system., Critical CriminologyA perspective that examines power, inequality, and social justice in understanding crime and the criminal justice system.
Research Background
Pat Carlen’s work emerged in a context of increasing feminist criticism of mainstream criminology. Women, CrimeActs or omissions that violate criminal laws and are punishable by the state. and Poverty is based on fieldwork conducted in a British women’s prison and contains extensive qualitative interviews with women who had been imprisoned primarily for non-violent, often poverty-related offenses. The book was published at a time when neoliberal economic restructuring was increasing social inequality in the UK—especially affecting working-class women.
Theoretical Perspective and Method
Carlen combines feminist theory, Marxist analysis, and qualitative research to offer a critique of both criminal justice institutions and criminological theory. Her approach is empirical and theoretical at once: she systematically challenges traditional assumptions about female deviance and instead emphasizes women’s agency within structurally constrained environments.
Core Arguments
At the heart of Carlen’s analysis is the argument that female criminality cannot be understood without reference to poverty and social exclusion. Many of the women interviewed described histories of abuse, homelessness, precarious work, and systemic neglect. Their paths to imprisonment were not marked by choice or “moral failure,” but by the cumulative effects of inequality.
Carlen introduces the idea of the “gender deal” and the “class deal”—implicit societal expectations that women will receive emotional and material rewards for conforming to gender and class norms. When these “deals” are broken or unattainable, deviance becomes a rational, if not desperate, alternative. The women in her study often failed to receive the expected support from the state, family, or economy, and found themselves criminalized for trying to survive outside these frameworks.
She further argues that the criminal justice system punishes women for both their crimes and their failure to fulfill traditional roles as mothers, partners, or “respectable women.” This dual punishment reveals the deeply moralizing and gendered nature of penal control.
Carlen’s work challenges the widespread assumption that criminological theories—mostly developed with male subjects—are equally applicable to women. By highlighting the impact of gendered role expectations, social marginalization, and disrupted life trajectories on female offending, she calls for a theoretical recalibration of criminology. At the same time, her concepts of the “gender deal” and “class deal” reveal structural parallels: male offenders, too, may act in response to broken social promises—though shaped by different cultural and normative frameworks.Example: While Carlen describes how women may turn to crime after experiencing failed promises of emotional security and respectability (the “gender deal”), a working-class man who loses stable employment and social recognition might similarly commit property crime when the “class deal” collapses. Both cases illustrate how unmet structural expectations can lead to deviance—but through gender-specific pathways.
Reception and Influence
Women, Crime and Poverty became a cornerstone of feminist criminology and had lasting influence on both academic and policy debates. Carlen’s work inspired further research into the lived realities of women in prison, as well as broader critiques of social policy and the welfare state’s complicity in criminalizing poverty.
The book also laid the groundwork for intersectional approaches in criminology, drawing attention to how class and gender intersect in the production of deviance and punishment. Today, Carlen’s work continues to resonate in discussions on prison abolition, social justice, and gender-sensitive penal reform.
Feminist criminology emerged from critiques of male-dominated crime research. It addresses not only women’s deviance but also their structural marginalization within systems of social control, punishment, and law. Topics include gendered policing, moral regulation, violence against women, and intersectional injustice.
Conclusion
Pat Carlen’s Women, Crime and Poverty remains a powerful intervention in criminology. It reveals how women’s pathways into crime are shaped by social inequality, exclusion, and gendered expectations. By foregrounding the voices and experiences of incarcerated women, Carlen challenged the field to rethink its categories and confront its own biases. Her work continues to inspire feminist and critical criminologists who aim to understand—and transform—the social conditions that give rise to criminalization.
References
- Carlen, Pat (1988): Women, Crime and Poverty. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
- Heidensohn, Frances (1985): Women and Crime. London: Macmillan.
- Smart, Carol (1976): Women, Crime and Criminology. London: Routledge.
- Buist, Carrie L. / Lenning, Emily (2015): Queer Criminology. New York: Routledge.
- Davis, Angela Y. (2003): Are Prisons Obsolete? New York: Seven Stories Press.
