Feminist Criminology and Women in Organized Crime: A Theoretical Exercise

45 | 2022

Ana Guerreiro*, Sílvia Gomes**, Pedro Sousa***

* University of Porto / University of Maia (ISMAI), Porto, Portugal
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2312-6266
** Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Nottingham Trent University (NTU), UK / Interdisciplinary Center for Social Sciences – CICS.NOVA Lisboa, Portugal
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5503-0037
*** School of Criminology and Research Centre on Crime, Justice and Security (CJS), Faculty of Law, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8859-7195

Since the 1970s, there has been an increase in the number of studies focused on women offenders. However, those associated with organized crime are still rare, despite the evidence of cases of women actively involved in criminal groups and playing particularly prominent roles.

This article aims to present an integrated review of the known literature that emphasizes the presence of women as offenders in organized crime groups. To this end, we (i) discuss how academia evolved from an androcentric perspective to a feminist criminology approach, and (ii) outline the role played by women offenders in the context of organized crime and their functions inside the group.

Keywords

Feminist criminology, women, female offenders, gender studies, organized crime

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22355/exaequo.2022.45.05
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