Encyclopedia of Women and Crime - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816047731 ISBN 13: 9780816047734

Publisher: Checkmark Books, 2003

Synopsis

Presents a guide to female criminology, covering criminal offenders, policing, court cases, victims and victimology, and key figures in the criminal justice process.

About this title

About the Author

Nicole Hahn Rafter, a professor in the law, policy, and society program at Northeastern University, has written or co-written several books on women and crime, including International Feminist Perspectives in Criminology: Engendering a Discipline and Partial Justice: Women, Prisons, and Social Control. She coordinated the efforts of more than 200 expert contributors in the field from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia for Encyclopedia of Women and Crime.

From Booklist

Described by the editor as the "first comprehensive reference book on the topic of women and crime," this volume has 240 alphabetically arranged, signed entries authored by more than 200 contributors. Entries include further readings as well as cross-references. The index is well developed; the nearly 40-page list of resources, both electronic and print, is very helpful; and a "Topic Finder" offers the reader a quick but structured overview of the contents. The scope is international, providing information from Australia, Great Britain, Canada, and the U.S., with the focus on the latter.

Rafter reports that the encyclopedia was developed around four themes: crime; victims and victimology; policing, courts, and case processing; and punishment and treatment. The work also does an admirable job of offering what could have been identified as a fifth theme: careers in criminal justice, police work , law, and corrections. Within this general subject can be found such entry headings as Lawyers and gender difference, Women professionals in the justice workplace, and discussions of police subcultures that contain, for example, lesbians and women of color.

The entries cover enormous territory, treating such topics as Aggression; Borden, Lizzie; Child-savers movement; Death row; Elderly victims; O'Connor, Sandra Day; Shoplifting; Terrorism; and Victims, historical treatment of. In one example, Crime fiction writers, a minihistory of the genre examines a few of its superstars, such as the "mother of the detective novel" Anna Katherine Green (1846-1935), who inspired Agatha Christie as well as Sara Paretsky. Evidence of the frustration, the absurdity, and the cruelty inherent in any polar classification of women can be found in the entry titled Madonna/whore dichotomy. In Rape rates, USA, information provided by the only ongoing national survey, the U.S. Census Bureau's National Crime Victimization Survey, is reported. Also discussed is the chilling National Women's Study, wherein the authors estimated that more than 12 million American women have been raped; that's a rate of some 683,000 forcible rapes per year.

This well-organized reference tool is recommended for public libraries of any size, as well as high-school and undergraduate libraries, where it should prove valuable to the researcher, student, casual reader, and librarian. It should also be considered for locations with limited space but a demonstrated need for this type of information, such as bookmobiles or other off-site collections. RBB
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: Checkmark Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0816047731
• ISBN 13: 9780816047734
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 361
• Editor: Rafter Nicole Hahn