39 Chapter 10 Discussion Questions
Jasmine Wise
- We find young people in particular often feel uncomfortable identifying as feminists. What is your definition of feminism and why do you think people may reject the label?
- Consider the offence of theft. How would each of the six feminist perspectives explain the role and impact of gender?
- How can we use feminist criminology to understand the #MeToo movement – both the offenders and the victims?
- Using your own experience or current events, try to think of examples that illustrate the presence and practice of overt, institutional, and/or systemic racism in the criminal justice system.
- Johann Friedrich Blumenbach’s research allowed him to argue that humankind was split into five categories of humans: Caucasians, Mongolians, Ethiopians, Americans, and Malays. These categories have been discredited by more recent scientific research and academic scholarship, but the use of “Caucasian” persists today. What are some possible reasons for the continued and popular use of “Caucasian” while the other terms of reference have been discontinued?
- While Crenshaw talks about intersectionality within education (Kimberlé Crenshaw: What is Intersectionality?), how can we think about the same ideas within the criminal justice system?
- Thinking about intersectionality, what are some ways Black, Indigenous, and women of color may be harmed by policy changes such as mandatory domestic violence charging, or the criminalization of sex work?
- As noted in the case study of MMIWG, in 1996, the RCAP asked “Why in a society where justice is supposed to be blind are the inmates of our prisons selected so overwhelmingly from a single ethnic group [Indigenous peoples]?” (Hamilton & Sinclair, 1996). Today we know that Indigenous peoples continue to be over-represented throughout the criminal justice system at alarming rates, and these rates are now even more pronounced for Indigenous women. How can the information about feminism and feminist criminology presented in this chapter help explain these findings?