Staying with the Social Project: A Review of Feminist Criminology

Abstract

Review of the Field In this issue, Social & Legal Studies is pleased to publish the third of an occasional feature: Review of the Field. Our ambition in this series is to publish articles which reflect upon fields of study and which offer a critical appraisal of the key literature and concepts. The aim is to provide not only a valuable map of the scholarly terrain but, equally, we hope that the format will give authors the opportunity to set a direction of travel for their discipline. Thus, we anticipate that reviews will ask new research questions, identify gaps in the scholarship and explore connections and discontinuities between diverse bodies of knowledge. Suggestions for future reviews are welcome and should be addressed to members of the Editorial Board. We are pleased to publish this Review of Feminist Criminology by Katharine Dunbar Winsor of Concordia University. We hope that our readers agree with us that the article provides an important addition to the literature and provides an invaluable template for contributors of future reviews. Editorial Board Social & Legal Studies The emergence of the feminist movement in the 1960s and 1970s became a primary influence of the field of feminist criminology. Feminist criminology has evolved over the past several decades and has remained impacted by and in dialogue with feminist thought and perspectives. Within the field, researchers have focused on producing and circulating women-centred knowledge. Despite this, tensions within the field highlight diverging approaches to what and who is studied. In Canada, the maturation of feminist criminology as a field has coincided with significant changes to women’s penology. In this essay, the development and changes to feminist criminology are mapped through an examination of key events and changes in Canada’s penal strategies for women. What emerges is the argument that feminist criminology must understand itself beyond narrow and discrete terms and instead must work with the tensions and debates of the field to keep women’s voices centred and the feminist social project alive.