Citation

Miller J. Br. J. Sociol. 2010; 61(Suppl 1): 133-139.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, London School of Economics and Political Science, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1468-4446.2009.01268.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

It's been just over forty years since the publication of Frances Heidensohn's ‘The deviance of women’ (1968). What a privilege to have the opportunity to reflect on the impact of this work, and to assess where we have honoured Heidensohn's calls to action and where we have fallen short. Let me begin with a telling confession. When Richard Wright first approached me about writing a commentary on ‘The deviance of women’, I hadn't previously read it. Of course I knew Heidensohn as a prominent feminist studying crime and justice, but I was unaware of this pivotal work. What does this mean?

A number of things, I would imagine. Perhaps American insularity? Or our tendency, much to the lament of former Criminology editor Bob Bursik (2009), to fail to read all of those important works that came before us (and thus to continually ‘reinvent the wheel’)? Each of these likely contains a grain of truth, but I also have a more compelling interpretation which I believe is equally accurate.

It was a full two decades after the original publication of ‘The deviance of women’ that I was first introduced to feminist criminology ...