Merits and delusions of feminist criminology

The author deals critically with the contribution of feminism to criminology and law, starting from the presumption that feminism, together with postmodernism, has successfully provoked a modernistic starting point, but it did not offer any adequate or real alternative foundation for it. Feminist theory needs a new ground, since neither the insufficient empirical feminism nor perspective or postmodernist feminism have significantly improved the social status of women. The author also highlights that feminism relies today somewhat paradoxically on law and tries to demonstrate the nonsense of such a notion with examples from legal practice and with an explanation of how a struggle for formal equality of rights can even go so far as to consolidate gender discrimination. Relying on cultural feminism, the author considers that feminism, in its endeavours for justice and real equality of genders, should resort rather to the inspiration of positive values of mutual respect and connectedness. The paper concludes with speculation about an appropriate theoretical ground of feminism that would be able to justify its further promotion in the narrow field of criminology and broader field of social sciences. According to the author, the essential shortcoming of feminism is the absence of self-critique and the lack of acknowledgment of women as offenders and not just as victims of criminal offences.