THE CRIMINALISATION OF WOMEN. FROM WITCH HUNTS TO PROPOSALS FOR THE TRANSFORMATION OF CRIMINAL LAW

Abstract

This work addresses three important milestones in the crime-gender relationship. The first, that of the historical criminalization of women in what are known as “status” crimes and other socio-criminal control mechanisms that they have suffered throughout history. The second, the birth of feminist criminology and the idea of Law as a gender-creating device, responsible for perpetuating the binary logics of gender and the undesirable consequences of formal social control for women by criminalizing them. The third milestone aims to investigate how, at present, feminist theses are producing a clear interpellation of the prison sentence and the criminal response to crime.