A Narrative Approach to Women’s Lawbreaking

Jennifer Fleetwood

doi:10.1177/1557085115591998

Abstract

This article argues for the value of narrative criminology for feminist explanations of women’s lawbreaking. Contemporary theories note the significance of material gendered inequalities; however, narrative offers a way to include discursive aspects of gender. Drawing on recent developments in narrative criminology, this article analyzes how women may “talk themselves into” lawbreaking. Analysis draws on interviews with three women with diverse experiences in the drug trade and shows how drug trafficking was narrated as impossible, meaningful, and inevitable. A narrative approach therefore offers ways to understand how for some women, under some circumstances, lawbreaking may become meaningful.

Highlights

IntroductionLawbreaking prompted by the feminist critique of criminology (Bowker 1978; Heidensohn 1968; Smart 1976; Klein 1973)
The 1980s saw a flurry of empirical and theoretical work on women’s and girls’lawbreaking prompted by the feminist critique of criminology (Bowker 1978; Heidensohn 1968; Smart 1976; Klein 1973)
Lack of consideration for both aspects of gender has arguably led to an impasse in the development of feminist criminological theory (Daly and Maher 1998)

Summary

Introduction

Lawbreaking prompted by the feminist critique of criminology (Bowker 1978; Heidensohn 1968; Smart 1976; Klein 1973). Explaining women’s offending was high on the agenda (Carlen 1988; Cook 1987; Leonard 1982; Heidensohn 1985; Simon 1975). Some thirty-odd years later, feminist research on women’s victimisation and their experiences of and in criminal justice institutions as victims, offenders and employees proliferates (Heidensohn and Silvestri 2012; Renzetti 2013; Barberet 2014), yet their lawbreaking receives comparably little attention. Lack of consideration for both aspects of gender has arguably led to an impasse in the development of feminist criminological theory (Daly and Maher 1998). Narrative criminologists explore how people may ‘talk themselves into’ harmful, or law breaking behaviours (Presser 2009; Presser and Sandberg 2015)

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion