In Her Own Voice: Presentations on Women, Crime, and Criminal Justice at American Society of Criminology Meetings From 1999–2008

Abstract

We conducted a content analysis of presentations on women, crime, and criminal justice at the annual meetings of the American Society of Criminology from 1999 through 2008 to determine not only the range of topics that were presented on women and crime but also who made the presentations. By focusing on presentations of research on women, crime, and criminal justice, we attempt to determine whether these areas are more or less likely to be recognized, explored, and discussed. Findings suggest that (a) the issues of women, crime, and criminal justice were included in 16.13 percent of American Society of Criminology conference presentations during the period of study, and the annual percentage of presentations on these topic areas has remained constant; (b) although there is a wide array of topics in the presentations on women and crime, the most frequently addressed topics and rarely addressed topics are constant over the years; and (c) presentations on and about gender issues have been conducted primarily by female scholars.

KEYWORDS:

• American Society of Criminology (ASC)
• content analysis
• women

Acknowledgments

An earlier version of this article was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 7, 2009.

Notes

Note: Values in bold are above the overall mean (16.13).

Note: GLBT = gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender.

^a The category of “others” is excluded from the rank.

^b Multiple responses—gender, juvenile offenders, and victims.

^c Multiple responses—sexual harassment, trafficking, violent crimes committed by women.

^d Multiple responses—gender, gang, and school violence, stalking.

^e Multiple responses—HIV and AIDS, trafficking, stalking, female community correction samples.

^f Multiple responses—stalking.

^g Multiple responses—juvenile response to girls.

^h Multiple responses—sexual harassment, inmate mothers, female community correction samples.

Note: Values in bold are above the overall mean (77.5).

Note: Male presenters are in bold.