ABSTRACT
The arguments which have been made to underpin the development of woman-centred, gender-specific and gender-responsive justice have been developed over a number of decades and have changed in their emphasis and tone during this period. This argument was soon reformulated by feminist criminologists as a concern with gendered social relationships and their impact – initially on women and girls, then subsequently on men as the problematisation of masculinity was brought into the field of criminological debate. The reconstruction of criminological theory, the law and criminal justice practices along alternative, women-centred and feminised lines is the necessary final element of the transgressive project. In a number of ways then, the impact of feminist praxis was generalised and absorbed into best practice across a whole range of social interventions. As many feminists working within criminology have remarked, taking a feminist stance is about so much more than adding women to the mix of available knowledge and practice.
