Publisher Description

This book of eleven chapters and an Introduction is by and about women, the harms and crimes to which they are subjected as a result of global social processes and their efforts to take control of their own futures. The chapters explore the criminogenic and damaging consequences of the policies of the global financial institutions as well as the effects of growing economic polarisation both in pockets of the developed world and most markedly in the global south. Reflecting on this evidence, in the Introduction the editors necessarily challenge existing criminological theory by expanding and elaborating a conception of social harm that encompasses this range of problems, and exposes where new solutions derived from criminological theory are necessary. A second theme addresses human rights from the standpoint of indigenous women, minority women and those seeking refuge. Inadequate and individualised as the human rights instruments presently are, for most of these women a politics of human rights emerges as central to the achieving of legal and political equality and protection from individual violence. Women in the poorest countries, however, are sceptical as to the efficacy of rights claims in the face of the depredations of international and global capital, and the social dislocation produced thereby. Nonetheless this is a hopeful book, emphasising the contribution which academic work can make, provided the methodology is appropriately gendered and sufficiently sensitive in its guiding ideology and techniques to hear and learn from the all too often 'glocalised' other. But in the end there is no solution without politics, and in both the opening and the closing sections of this book there are chapters which address this. What continues to be special about women's political practice is the connection between the groundedness of small groups and the fluidity and flexibility of regional and international networks: the effective politics of the global age. This book, then, is a new criminology for and by women, a book which opens up a new criminological terrain for both women and men - and a book which cannot easily be read without an emotional response.

Author Biography

Maureen Cain is a sociologist. She has worked at Brunel University, the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, and the University of Birmingham. Adrian Howe is an Associate Professor in Social Science at RMIT University.

Table of Contents

1. Criminogenesis, the War Against Drugs and Human Rights: (Another) Story of Absented WomenMaureen Cain2. Violence Against Women: Rethinking the Local–Global Nexus in Feminst Strategy Adrian Howe3. Globalisation, Human Security, Fundamentalism and Women's Rights: Emergent Contradictions Peggy AntrobusPart II Women on the Move4. The Gender of Borderpanic: Women in Circuits of Security, State, Globalisation and New (and Old) Empire Suvendrini Perera5. Xeno-racism and the Demonisation of Refugees: A Gendered Perspective Liz Fekete6. Dangerous Liaisons: Sex Work, Globalisation, Morality and the State in Contemporary India Brinda BosePart III Human Rights-Limits and Possibilities7. Global Rights, Local Harms: The Case of the Human Rights of Women in Sub-Saharan Africa Esther Kisaakye8. The Globalisation of International Human Rights Law, Aboriginal Women and the Practice of Aboriginal Customary Law Megan DavisPart IV Rethinking Social Harm in a Global Context9. Women and Natural Disasters: State Crime and Discourses in Vulnerability Penny Green10. Global Feminist Networks on Domestic Violence Rhoda Reddock11. Local Contexts and Globalised Knowledge: What can International Criminal Victimisation Surveys Tell Us About Women's Diverse Lives? Sandra Walklate

Review

One of its key strengths is its capacity to cover much ground whilst simultaneously remaining unified by a concern to demonstrate the global context of harm against women. Achieving such a diverse collection of chapters within a coherent framework is often woefully lacking in such edited collections and its editors...should be commended for such an achievement. -- Marisa Silvestri * The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, Volume 51, No.5 *
...admirably adds to our understanding in global criminology, specifically with a focus on the position of women...What is probably most remarkable about this collection, apart from its various chapters' substantive merits, is that it reads truly as the work of a collective. -- Mathieu Deflem * The Law & Politics Book Review, Vol.19, No.8 *
[a] timely and important book … that deal[s] with what are, or should be, concerns for criminology.It is critical, theoretically driven, international in scope and politically engaged.A wonderful, thought-provoking collection of essays. -- Julie Stubbs * British Journal of Criminology, Volume 50, No. 2 *
This thought-provoking collection … provides a critical exploration of various expressions of women's victimization in the context of globalization, setting the stage for an emergent feminist global criminology.The contributions are presents in a manner that is accessible for audiences from a variety of disciplines and perspectives.This collection is the first to provide a review of harms and expressions of violence against women in the context of globalization. It's value lies in the broad interpretation of violence against women, which incorporates not only physical by also social, economic, political and spiritual harm. -- Edna Erez * Law and Society Review, Volume 44, Issue 2 *
This vibrant collection as a whole shows how the tension between the local and the global can be navigated through appreciating, as Walklate highlights, the lessons of standpoint feminism to knowledge construction, and an acknowledgment of the diversity of women's lives (Cain and Howe 2008: 212-13). It makes a strong case for pushing the boundaries of criminology to encompass an analytic of social harm to reveal those cases of 'censure without sanction' (Cain and Howe 2008: 17). -- Louise Boon-Kuo * Current Issues in Criminal Justice, Volume 22, Number 2 *

Review Quote

"One of its key strengths is its capacity to cover much ground whilst simultaneously remaining unified by a concern to demonstrate the global context of harm against women. Achieving such a diverse collection of chapters within a coherent framework is often woefully lacking in such edited collections and its editors...should be commended for such an achievement." -- The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, Volume 51, No.5 "...admirably adds to our understanding in global criminology, specifically with a focus on the position of women...What is probably most remarkable about this collection, apart from its various chapters' substantive merits, is that it reads truly as the work of a collective." -- The Law & Politics Book Review, Vol.19, No.8 "[a] timely and important book ... that deal[s] with what are, or should be, concerns for criminology. It is critical, theoretically driven, international in scope and politically engaged. A wonderful, thought-provoking collection of essays." -- British Journal of Criminology, Volume 50, No. 2 "This thought-provoking collection ... provides a critical exploration of various expressions of women's victimization in the context of globalization, setting the stage for an emergent feminist global criminology. The contributions are presents in a manner that is accessible for audiences from a variety of disciplines and perspectives. This collection is the first to provide a review of harms and expressions of violence against women in the context of globalization. It's value lies in the broad interpretation of violence against women, which incorporates not only physical by also social, economic, political and spiritual harm." -- Law and Society Review, Volume 44, Issue 2 "This vibrant collection as a whole shows how the tension between the local and the global can be navigated through appreciating, as Walklate highlights, the lessons of standpoint feminism to knowledge construction, and an acknowledgment of the diversity of women's lives (Cain and Howe 2008: 212-13). It makes a strong case for pushing the boundaries of criminology to encompass an analytic of social harm to reveal those cases of 'censure without sanction' (Cain and Howe 2008: 17)." -- Current Issues in Criminal Justice, Volume 22, Number 2

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