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The Resource Neither angels nor demons : women, crime, and victimization, Kathleen J. Ferraro

Neither angels nor demons : women, crime, and victimization, Kathleen J. Ferraro

Creator
Summary
She is a victim of intimate partner violence, a woman who has been harmed. She is a criminal offender, a woman who has harmed others. Superficially, it seems she is two separate women. "Victim" and "offender" are binary categories used within law, social science, and public discourse to describe social experiences with a moral dimension. Such terms draw upon cultural narratives of good and bad people and have influenced scholarship, public policy, and activism. The duality of "good" and "bad" women, separated into mutually exclusive extremes of angels and demons, has helped segregate thinking about, and responses to, each group. In this groundbreaking study, Kathleen J. Ferraro exposes the limits of such thinking by exploring the link between victimization and offending from the perspective of the women charged with the crimes. Interviewing forty-five women charged with criminal offenses (more than half of whom killed their abusers; the others participated in a range of violent crimes related to domestic violence), Ferraro uses their stories to illuminate complex interactions with violent partners, their children, and the legal system. She shows that these women are neither stereotypical angels nor demons, but rather human beings whose complicated lives belie the abstract categorizations of researchers, legal advocates, and the criminal justice system. Ferraro begins with a general discussion of blurred boundaries and the complexity of experience, and moves from there to discuss women's interactions with the criminal processing system. In the course of her study, she reexamines, and finds wanting, many standard ways of evaluating women's violent behavior, including "mutual combat," "battered woman syndrome," and "cycle of violence." She argues that a more complex, nuanced understanding of intimate partner violence and how it contributes to women's offending will contribute to public policy less focused on control and accountability of individuals than on developing social conditions that promote everyone's safety and well-being and foster a sense of hope
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
xi, 327 pages
Contents
  • Introduction
  • Blurred boundaries and the complexities of experience
  • Irreconcilable differences : women's encounters with the criminal processing system
  • Negotiating surreality
  • The social reproduction of women's pain
  • Demonic angels? : violence against abusers
  • Angelic demons? : crimes of complicity
  • Epilogue
Isbn
9781555536626
Link
http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0615/2006019965.html
Instance
Label
Neither angels nor demons : women, crime, and victimization
Title
Neither angels nor demons
Title remainder
women, crime, and victimization
Statement of responsibility
Kathleen J. Ferraro
Creator
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
She is a victim of intimate partner violence, a woman who has been harmed. She is a criminal offender, a woman who has harmed others. Superficially, it seems she is two separate women. "Victim" and "offender" are binary categories used within law, social science, and public discourse to describe social experiences with a moral dimension. Such terms draw upon cultural narratives of good and bad people and have influenced scholarship, public policy, and activism. The duality of "good" and "bad" women, separated into mutually exclusive extremes of angels and demons, has helped segregate thinking about, and responses to, each group. In this groundbreaking study, Kathleen J. Ferraro exposes the limits of such thinking by exploring the link between victimization and offending from the perspective of the women charged with the crimes. Interviewing forty-five women charged with criminal offenses (more than half of whom killed their abusers; the others participated in a range of violent crimes related to domestic violence), Ferraro uses their stories to illuminate complex interactions with violent partners, their children, and the legal system. She shows that these women are neither stereotypical angels nor demons, but rather human beings whose complicated lives belie the abstract categorizations of researchers, legal advocates, and the criminal justice system. Ferraro begins with a general discussion of blurred boundaries and the complexity of experience, and moves from there to discuss women's interactions with the criminal processing system. In the course of her study, she reexamines, and finds wanting, many standard ways of evaluating women's violent behavior, including "mutual combat," "battered woman syndrome," and "cycle of violence." She argues that a more complex, nuanced understanding of intimate partner violence and how it contributes to women's offending will contribute to public policy less focused on control and accountability of individuals than on developing social conditions that promote everyone's safety and well-being and foster a sense of hope
Member of
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Ferraro, Kathleen J
Dewey number
364.3/740973
Index
index present
LC call number
HV6046
LC item number
.F43 2006
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
Series statement
The Northeastern series on gender, crime, and law
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Female offenders
  • Women
  • Female offenders
  • Abused women
  • Sex discrimination in criminal justice administration
  • Criminelles
  • Femmes, Crimes contre les
  • Criminelles
  • Femmes victimes de violence
  • Discrimination sexuelle dans l'administration de la justice pénale
  • Abused women
  • Female offenders
  • Sex discrimination in criminal justice administration
  • Women
  • United States
  • Frau
  • Gewalt
  • Verbrechensopfer
  • Frau
  • Frau
  • Strafprozess
Label
Neither angels nor demons : women, crime, and victimization, Kathleen J. Ferraro
Link
http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0615/2006019965.html
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 291-313) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Introduction -- Blurred boundaries and the complexities of experience -- Irreconcilable differences : women's encounters with the criminal processing system -- Negotiating surreality -- The social reproduction of women's pain -- Demonic angels? : violence against abusers -- Angelic demons? : crimes of complicity -- Epilogue
Control code
ocm70149278
Dimensions
23 cm.
Extent
xi, 327 pages
Isbn
9781555536626
Lccn
2006019965
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
System control number
  • (Sirsi) o70149278
  • (OCoLC)70149278
Label
Neither angels nor demons : women, crime, and victimization, Kathleen J. Ferraro
Link
http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0615/2006019965.html
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 291-313) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Introduction -- Blurred boundaries and the complexities of experience -- Irreconcilable differences : women's encounters with the criminal processing system -- Negotiating surreality -- The social reproduction of women's pain -- Demonic angels? : violence against abusers -- Angelic demons? : crimes of complicity -- Epilogue
Control code
ocm70149278
Dimensions
23 cm.
Extent
xi, 327 pages
Isbn
9781555536626
Lccn
2006019965
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
System control number
  • (Sirsi) o70149278
  • (OCoLC)70149278

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