Book Review: Women’s Crimes, Criminology, and Corrections

• Author: Sara Deffendoll
• DOI: 10.1177/0887403414549326
• Published date: 01 December 2015
• Date: 01 December 2015
• Subject Matter: Book Review

549326CJPXXX10.1177/0887403414549326Criminal Justice Policy ReviewBook Review
research-article2014
Book Review
Criminal Justice Policy Review
2015, Vol. 26(8) 828 –830
Book Review
© 2014 SAGE Publications
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Pollock, J. M. Women’s Crimes, Criminology, and Corrections. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press,
2014. 397 pp. $42.95. Paperback. ISBN 978-1-4786-1150-9.
Reviewed by: Sara Deffendoll, Capella University, Minneapolis, MN
DOI: 10.1177/0887403414549326
The field of criminal justice has, historically, been a male-dominated field. Until the
1970s, the majority of research conducted in the criminal justice field was led by male
researchers who focused almost exclusively on male participants. Traditional theories
of criminality, such as cultural deviance theory and social strain theory, often ignored
female criminality because it represented such a small percentage of overall criminal-
ity. In addition, many early researchers believed that male criminal behavior was nor-
mal and thus did not feel that female criminal behaviors warranted research. However,
it should be noted that this attitude was not limited to criminal justice research. Many
fields, during the 1800s and early 1900s, focused almost exclusively on male partici-
pants including medical and sociological research. Women’s Crimes, Criminology, and
Corrections provides a comprehensive look at female-oriented research and theory as
well as a thorough review of female juvenile delinquents, the practices of sentencing
female offenders, and female prisoners, parolees, and probationers.
Although there has been little research that directly examines female criminality,
crime statistics for both male and female offenders are collected by several avenues,
most notably the Uniform Crime Report and the National Crime Victimization Survey,
that offer an examination of the course of female criminality. The most striking finding
discussed...