ABSTRACT
It is now some 45 years ago that Wootton (1959: 32) made the observation that, ‘Yet, if men behaved like women, the courts would be idle and the prisons empty’. Despite the intervening years, some would say that it is still a moot point whether or not criminology, or her sister discipline, victimology, has as yet managed to take Wootton’s observation to heart. As Cain (1989: 4) commented, ‘this is because the criminological gaze cannot see gender: the criminological discourse cannot speak men and women’. Some would say that, current theoretical and empirical agendas notwithstanding, criminology (and victimology; see Chapter 8) still struggle with the question of gender (see, for example, Walklate, 2001). The purpose of this chapter is to try to unravel some of the issues associated with this perennial disciplinary blindspot. In order to do this, it will first of all introduce the student to the ways in which varieties of feminism have considered this question. It will then consider the different ways in which thinking about men and masculinity can be traced within the discipline. Finally, it will offer a brief overview of how the question of gender may be pertinent in understanding the work of the criminal justice professionals and the formation of criminal justice policy. In doing all of this, the central question of this chapter will be: ‘when is gender the salient variable in facilitating our understanding of crime and criminal justice?’
