Similar Past, Different Future? How Feminist and Queer Criminological Pedagogy and Qualitative Methods Intersect and Diverge

Abstract

While feminist and queer epistemologies in criminology have similar origins, dissimilarities based on key dimensions exist, with significant impacts for qualitative methods and methods education. Our article first explores approaches to qualitative methods that generally overlap between feminist and queer epistemologies, such as social change goals, common research methods, and intersectional analyses. We then focus on two broad examples to demonstrate how queer criminology and second-wave feminism diverge. Several recent incidents have crystallized a distinction between transgender inclusivity within queer criminology and transgender exclusivity motivated by trans-exclusionary radical feminism within feminist criminology. We also highlight sex-positive criminological approaches situated within queer criminology, which advocate broadly for decriminalization and harm reduction, compared to second-wave feminist approaches that view considerations of sex and sexuality differently. Lastly, we discuss topics that represent both convergence and divergence, such as the radical possibilities of both feminist and queer criminologies for abolitionist scholarship and methodology, while noting recent examples of the ways criminologists have or have not explored these possibilities. Throughout, we connect the theoretical and the methodological, illustrating the practical realities these similarities and dissimilarities lead to in qualitative research. Our discussion is rooted in principles of inclusive and intersectional pedagogy.

Keywords:

• Intersectionality
• queer criminology
• feminist criminology
• inclusion
• abolition
• qualitative methods

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Although queer criminology most often focuses on self-identified LGBTQ+ people, queer criminological work may also explore topics such as the experiences of other groups who are considered to be outside of society’s normative boundaries regarding sexuality and sexual behavior or the impact of legal statutes and institutional practices that uphold heteronormativity (see Wodda & Panfil, 2021, for examples).

2 Non-binary people do not identify solely as men nor as women: these people identify themselves outside of the gender binary (GLAAD, n.d.).

3 The term “intersex” is frequently used to describe a person whose sex characteristics do not conform to a binary categorization as either stereotypically male or female. Intersex people, too, are frequently erased by second-wave feminist scholarship.

4 The editorial team of Feminist Criminology rejected research articles responding to Burt’s (2020) piece written by queer and trans criminologists—such as one written in part by the third and fourth authors of this article—citing a policy created after the publication of Burt’s article allowing only short “Comment” responses to existing articles (interestingly, Burt’s original article far exceeded Feminist Criminology’s stated page limitations).