Radical Feminism

Radical Feminism

Radical feminists view masculine power and privilege as the root cause of all social inequality. The most important relations in any society, according to radical feminist, are found in patriarchy, a social system which is maintained through masculine control of labor, finance, and the sexuality of women (van Wormer and Bartollas, 2011). The book covers many topics and every feminists view has a different opinion on the topic. Some subjects at hand are women in crime, masculinities and crime, drug addiction, the prison environment, rape, feminist theory of delinquency, wife and partner abuse, women in law enforcement, women in corrections and last but not least women in the legal profession.

The first topic that I am going to discuss is women in crime. Women are involved in many different types of crimes. Women just like men are property crimes, drug-related crimes, murder, and robbery. But the most common and controversial crime committed by women is prostitution. Prostitution can be described as the "oldest profession" for women. Prostitution is the exchange of sex for money between mutually consenting adults (van Wormer and Bartollas, 2011). Radical Feminists have very strong views when it comes to prostitution. According to feminist issues.com the view of a radical feminist a prostitute does not act out of free choice but is a victim of coercion in both its most subtle and direct forms. There is a balance point in the argument between the radical feminists and prostitutes because they see the effect that prostitution has on marriages and family life. They tend to contradict themselves by saying that prostitutes are victims but then turn around and say that prostitutes effects the "delicate balance of love" when its comes to marriage and relationships. Radicals also believe that when equality is achieved between the sexes there will be no prostitution.

Another common crime for women is murder. Women that commit murder are less likely to have to have a previous criminal history, are more likely to have committed the offense alone, and are more likely to have killed as the result of domestic conflict (van Wormer and Bartollas, 2011). The victim-offender relationship differs substantially between female and male murders (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2007a). Men are more apt to kill a stranger or be killed by a stranger, homicides by and if women generally involve intimate homicides for all race and gender. Men are more likely to kill their spouse or partner then women are to kill theirs. Radical feminist view this as the man taking control over the women a little to far. Most women kill because they are in abusive relationships as opposed to men killing after a break up. The man could be seen as losing control over "his woman" when they break up and that is what drives him to kill.

Gender is the base of all thinking when it comes to the radical feminists. There are gender pathways, gender crime and gender lives. This shows the reason for female crimes and delinquency, while offering an explanation as to why these crimes are being committed.

The pathway is the trajectory of being male or female. This approach emphasizes the biographical elements, life course and developmental sequences. An example of this would be that women are expected to be the primary care givers for children and to take care of the house while the male role would be to work and take care of the family and be the strong one. Radical feminist view this as being one of the main reasons that women are not surpassing males in today's society and that these views are holding them back. The next reason is gendered crime and this states that the situational and organizational aspects of crime that relate to gender. This is stating that people can tell weather a crime is committed by a male or female by the nature of it (van Wormer and Bartollas, 2011). The precise planning and execution. There is a significant difference in the ways that women experience society compared with men. This is gendered lives. Radical feminist would view this as the reason for which they do what they do. As Daly (1998) expressed in her book The handbook of crime and justice "Rather than analyze gender as a correlate of crime, one would analyze crime as a correlate of gender". She also states that there are several ways to develop the idea of women's gendered lives in research. Radical feminist view this as a women's way of achieving the same level as men. They do what they do to try and better themselves to surpass or achieve the same level as men.

Drug addiction plays a key role in the lives of many. When it comes to women and the war on drugs it has had a drastic effect for poor women of color. Many women use drugs because of post traumatic stress disorder and early childhood trauma. Women who