The book's approach affords the reader an opportunity to review alternative perspectives on women and justice - and compare them to more traditional explanations. This expands the reader's knowledge base, spurs discussions, and addresses cutting-edge topics.

Contributors include leading feminist criminologists such as Meda Chensey-Lind, Kathleen Ferraro, Nancy Jurik, Susan Martin, Susan Miller, Barbara Owen, and Elizabeth Stanko.

Coverage includes topics typically not found in other books on women, crime, and justice - such as corporate violence against women, violence against women as a human rights issue, battered women charged with crimes, and international law.

All essays in the volume emphasize (1) the intersection of gender, race/ethnicity, and social class in the etiology of women's crime, (2) victimization, and (3) involvement in the criminal justice system. 

A brief introduction precedes every reading; discussion questions follow. These encourage students to think critically about what they have read and go beyond the essay to learn more about the topics addressed.

The book is divided into three sections. Each section features a thought-provoking introduction by the editors that provides a general overview and frames each selection in a larger context, which helps the reader understand the relevance of the selections that follow. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.  Introduction: Women, Crime, and Criminal Justice: An Overview 
Lynne Goodstein

Part I: Connecting Gender and Crime

2. Women, Danger, and Criminology
Elizabeth A. Stanko
Stanko analyses how the emotion-laden concept of danger has been used by criminologists to frame discussions of women's criminality, fear of crime, and criminal victimization.

3. 'Out of Sight/Out of Mind': Girls in the Juvenile Justice System 
Meda Chesney-Lind
Shattering the silence surrounding girls' delinquency, Chensey-Lind examines the problems that bring them to the attention of the juvenile justice system, and the sex bias that characterizes the system.

4. Girls and Gangs 
Rodney K. Brunson and Jody Miller
More girls today are involved in gangs and the authors describe the factors that have led to this increase, as well as girls' gang activity and the "double standards" imposed on girl gang members.

5. Doing Crime and Being Victimized: Agency and Victimization in Women's Illicit Lives and in the Legal Treatment of Women in Prostitution
Lisa Sanchez
Do women enter prostitution because they choose to or because they are compelled by circumstances? Sanchez examines how agency and victimization intersect in the lives of those she calls "the most marginalized women of all."

6. Gender and Violence 
Candace Kruttschnitt
Violent crime is gendered. The author reviews gender trends in violent crime, the causes of violent crime, and the relationship between violent offending and violent victimization.

7. Crime and Punishment in the Lives of Women Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) Users: Exploring the Gender, Lifestyle, and Legal Issues 
Richard F. Mancuso and Brenda A. Miller
Misconceptions about the relationship between substance abuse and crime are commonplace, as are stereotypes of substance-abusing women. Mancuso and Miller present data refuting these many myths while also showing how the unique treatment needs of substance-abusing women are not being met.

8. Explaining Female Offending
Darrell Steffensmeier and Lisa Broidy
Why do women commit crimes and why do they commit fewer crimes than men do? Steffensmeier and Broidy offer answers to these questions by reviewing a variety of criminological theories.

Part II: Crimes Against Women

9. Woman Battering: More Than a Family Problem 
Kathleen J. Ferraro
Ferraro examines the problem of the physical, psychological, and emotional abuse of women by their intimate partners, discussing how and why various interventions, although somewhat helpful, have fallen short of ensuring women's safety. 

10.  Sexual Assault 
Julie Allison and Irene Kollenbroich-Shea
Rape is one of the crimes women fear the most. The authors compare facts about rape with many of the prevalent myths about the crime.

11. Corporate Violence Against Women 
Linda Rynbrandt and Ronald C. Kramer
Few criminologists have examined women's victimization by corporate violence. Rynbrandt and Kramer fill this void by considering how women, as workers and consumers, are harmed by corporate deviance. 

12. Understanding Violence Against Women: Universal Human Rights and International Law
Judith Bessant and Sandy Cook
Bessant and Cook analyze women's violent victimization in the context of universal human rights, globalizing the problem of violence against women and framing potential remedies in terms of international law.

Part III: Gender, Law, and Criminal Justice

13. Female Crime Trends, 1960-1995 
Darrell Steffensmeier
In a careful analysis of the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports and other data, the author looks at trends in female arrests for various crimes, particularly those that significantly increased or decreased between 1960 and 1995.

14. Gender and Law
Frances Bernat
Most people assume that justice is blind, but Bernat reveals that our legal system is not gender-blind.

15. Women, Race, and Criminal Justice Processing
Evelyn Gilbert
The research that has examined race biases in the processing of criminal offenders has focused almost exclusively on men. In this chapter, Gilbert analyzes how both sex and race affect criminal justice processing.

16. When Victims Become Defendants: Battered Women Charged With Crimes
Sue Osthoff
It is commonly assumed that battered women who kill their abusers are typically acquitted, but Osthoff shows how stereotypes of the "real" battered woman often result in convictions of battered women charged with crimes.

17. Perspectives on Women in Prison
Barbara Owen
More women are in prison today than ever before, and Owen discusses the reasons for this increase in women's incarceration as well as the characteristics of incarcerated women, the needs of these women, and what prison life is like for them.

18. Gender and Policing
Susan L. Miller
Miller examines how gender - as well as race and ethnicity, social class, and sexual orientation - affect policing, both historically and today.

19. Femininities, Masculinities, and Organizational Conflict: Women in Criminal Justice Occupations
Nancy C. Jurik and Susan E. Martin
Women now work in the criminal justice system not only in policing, but also in corrections. The authors discuss the difficulties women have had to overcome in various criminal justice professions and the barriers that remain.