ABSTRACT
Patriarchy is the hierarchical legal, political and social structure that promotes masculine dominance and privileges men and males while subordinating other sexes and genders. In the 1970s, feminist theorists began to interrogate the connections between patriarchal structures and crime: challenging sexism in the judicial system; bringing sex-and gender-based abuse into focus; and highlighting the exclusion of women/girls from criminological research and theory. The first major scholarly contributions to the study of criminal behaviour and patriarchal power emerged during the second wave of feminism (the early 1960s to early 1980s) as activism created new space for women's knowledge and experiences, including in academia and, in particular, law schools. Simultaneously, feminist theorists of colour described the connections between crime and patriarchy from an intersectional perspective. In her classic 1976 book Women, Crime and Criminology, Carol Smart addressed the powerful lens of patriarchy in criminology.
