Course Description
This course will examine the female offender by focussing on how women’s criminality is created and responded to, both historically and in the current Canadian context. The connection between women’s victimization and criminality will be highlighted. The significance of patriarchal ideology and the role of social control agencies in the defining and processing of women as offenders will be examined. Some of the topics to be considered are: historical subordination, traditional and contemporary criminological explanations (specific emphasis will be given to feminist theories), characteristics of Canada’s female offenders, control and punishment, and strategies for change.
Course Content
- Women's Historical Subordination
- The Role of Patriarchal Ideology
- Early History: 5th to 18th Century
- Later History
- Explanations of Female Criminality
- Traditional Theories
- Contemporary Theories:
- Social-Psychological Theories:
- Socialization Differences
- Structural Differences
- Building a Feminist Criminology
- The Nature and Extent of Crimes Committed by Canadian Women
- Conforming Versus Non-Conforming Women
- "Average" female offender
- Differences among female offenders
- Categories of Female Offenders/Offenses:
- Property Crime
- Illegal Drug Involvement
- Violent Crime
- Terrorism/The Political Offender
- Youth Female Offender
- Indigenous Female Offender
- Gender, the Courts and the Law
- Chivalry - Paternalism Thesis
- Double-Standard Thesis
- Law as Ideology Thesis
- The Legal Defences
- The Female Offender, Control and Punishment
- Pre-Trial Diversion and Alternative Measures
- Women in Custody:
- Historical Perspectives
- The Federal Female Offender in Canada
- "Creating Choices": Rhetoric or Reality?
- The needs of imprisoned female offenders and their children.
- The Conditional Release Process
- Release Planning and Parole Decision Making
- Problems and Recommendations
- Strategies for Reform
- Reforming the Female Offender
- Reforming Social Control Agencies
- Reforming Society
Learning Activities
The course will employ a variety of instructional methods to accomplish its objectives, including some of the following: lectures, seminar presentations, audio visual materials including video, small group discussions, research projects and research papers.
Means of Assessment
Evaluation will be based on course objectives and will be carried out in accordance with Douglas College policy. The instructor will provide a written course outline with specific evaluation criteria at the beginning of the semester. Evaluation will be based on some of the following:
- Short Answer Tests
- Exams
- Oral Presentation
- Research Project/Term Paper
- Class Participation
An example of one possible evaluation scheme would be:
| Seminar Attendance and Participation |
10% |
| Term Paper |
20% |
| Debate |
10% |
| Midterm Exam |
30% |
| Final Exam |
30% |
| Total |
100% |
Learning Outcomes
At the conclusion of the course the successful student will be able to:
- Describe women's role as being socially, politically and economically subordinate.
- Critically examine the role of patriarchal ideology in women's subordination and the production of women's criminality.
- Discuss the role of social control agencies in processing women's criminality.
- Analyze the impact of the broader social, economic and legal spheres that impact on women's criminality.
- Critically analyze historical and contemporary explanations of women’s criminal behaviour.
- Describe the nature and extent of women's involvement in criminal activity.
- Analyze the diversity of women’s experiences of justice, as affected by factors such as age, race (for example First Nations women) and social class.
- Discuss the legal defences which may be applied in cases where a female offender has committed a crime of violence.
- Explain the impact of the criminal justice system on women offenders and their children.
- Analyze women's historical experience in prison and discuss contemporary prison reform.
- Explain the conditional release process for the female offender.
- Evaluate divergent strategies and policies for reform.
Textbook Materials
A bibliography of materials/resources and a manual of relevant selected readings will be available.
- Barker, J. (2018). Women, Crime and the Criminal Justice System. Toronto: Edmond Montgomery Publishing.