Deviant women : female crime and criminology in revolutionary Russia, 1880-1930 / Sharon A. Kowalsky.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kowalsky, Sharon A.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Female offenders--Soviet Union--History.

Female offenders.

Deviant behavior--Soviet Union--History.

Deviant behavior.

Women--Soviet Union--Social conditions.

Women.

Criminologists.

History.

Crime.

Soviet Union.

Social conditions.

Crime--Soviet Union--History.

Criminologists--Soviet Union--History.

Physical Description:

xii, 314 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

DeKalb : Northern Illinois University Press, [2009]

Summary:

After seizing power in 1917, the Bolsheviks initiated reforms aimed at abolishing the old way of life in Russia. A new Family Code liberalized marriage procedures, promoted communal living arrangements, and abolished the concept of illegitimacy. Other decrees legalized abortion, deregulated prostitution, and emancipated women. The Bolsheviks' Marxist ideology that guided these reforms was also behind the assertion that crime, an artifact of bourgeois capitalist exploitation, would disappear under socialism. As crime persisted, Soviet criminologistsa cohort of jurists, doctors, sociologists, anthropologists, psychiatrists, statisticians, and forensic expertswere charged with examining its causes and motives to determine the most effective methods to eliminate it. The problem of female crime occupied a prominent position in criminologists' studies. In explaining \u201ctraditional\u201d female crimes of the domestic sphereinfanticide, spouse murder, and petty theft, among otherscriminologists pointed to the offenders' backwardness and ignorance, material circumstances, and even biology. Kowalsky examines the position of women in early Soviet society through the lens of deviance, exploring how Soviet criminologists understood female crime and how their attitudes helped shape the development of Soviet social and behavioral norms. Deviant Women looks at the emergence of criminology in early Soviet Russia, tracing the development of principles and theoriesparticularly that of female devianceand highlighting the ways in which criminologists were able to conduct innovative social science research under the constraints of Bolshevik ideology. Kowalsky then focuses on the analyses of female crime and criminologists' attitudes concerning sexuality, geography, and class. Concluding with a close study of infanticide, the most \u201ctypical\u201d crime committed by women, Kowalsky discusses the social attitudes that were revealed in the professional discussion of this crime. Historians of modern Russia and the USSR, scholars of gender studies, and those studying criminology will be fascinated by this original study.

Contents:

Anthropology, sociology, and female crime : the origins of criminology in Russia

Professionals, social science, and the state : the organization of Soviet criminology

The woman's sphere : the role of sexuality in female deviance

The geography of crime : city, countryside, and trends in female criminality

A remnant of the old way of life : infanticide in theory and practice.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780875804064

0875804063

OCLC:

320895001