ABSTRACT
This case study applies the insights and perspective of feminist criminology, one the most vital aspects of contemporary criminological theory, to Natsuo Kirino’s 1997 novel Out. It argues that the novel puts the traditional gendering of the criminal-victim binary in which men are seen as violent criminals and women as passive victims under heavy pressure. Similarly, the novel uses the tropes of crime fiction to support a broader attack on Japanese patriarchal norms.
