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Men's Rea - A Note on Sexual Difference, Criminology and the Law (From Radical Issues in Criminology, P 109-122, 1980, Pat Carlen and Mike Collison, ed. - See NCJ-74506)

NCJ Number
74510
Author(s)
M Cousins
Date Published
1980
Length
14 pages
Annotation
Differences between feminist and leftist approaches to law and notions of sexual differences in law are discussed.
Abstract
It is argued that leftist critics maintain political distance from the law and treat law as a homogeneous field, while feminists become immediately involved in specific problems of law and approach laws with different objectives. However, in conceptualizing the relationship between sexual difference and the law, a number of recent feminist works have failed to acknowledge the complex problems of intervening in family law. Such texts ascribe the exclusion of female criminality from conventional criminology to past failure to document the phenomenon or to misunderstanding of women's nature and ascription of certain innate characteristics to women. According to this view, systematic discriminations of law against female criminals are an effect of patriarchal social relations in general. The feminist texts argue that there is no essential relationship between the law and women. In refuting the feminist position, the author argues that law is not a single entity and that social causes alone cannot be blamed for divison of the sexes in law. Indeed, the heterogeneous collection of statuses and capacities in law which seem to focus on the organization of sexual differences cannot be made commensurate with the categories 'men' or 'women.' The important questions are what effects the law has upon the organization of sexual differences and what reforms should be made. Care must be taken to establish the relationship between political objectives and forms of agency, a process which may be complex. Almost any legal change can be effected on the grounds that a right is in need of being recognized, but political analysis and goal formation must take into consideration the implications of extending legal forms and status.

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