Premium
From Marx to Bonger: Socialist Writings on Women, Gender, and Crime *
Author(s) -
Messerschmidt James W.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
sociological inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.446
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1475-682X
pISSN - 0038-0245
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-682x.1988.tb01070.x
Subject(s) - sociology , criminology , reproduction , relations of production , work (physics) , gender studies , political science , law , politics , mechanical engineering , ecology , biology , engineering
Contemporary socialist criminologists concentrate their analysis of crime on production relations, ignoring the co‐determination of reproduction and thus the role gender plays in crime by men and women. The author argues that this omission has occurred by reason of the theoretical work of Marx and Engels, as well as other socialist “criminologists” of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The importance of the paper lies in its demonstration that the questions raised by these early socialist theoreticians are inadequate for developing a comprehensive theory of crime.