“Taking a position and staying grounded”: A biography of karlene faith

This article is a biography of Karlene Faith, one of Canada's leading feminist scholars/activists. It describes: her childhood; high school life; college years; early intellectual influences; how she came to criminology; her entrance into the academy; her important contributions to feminism, criminology, and criminal justice; her future plans; and her love of music. Thanks to Karlene Faith and other feminist academic activists, gender is now a major component of much of the criminological work being done in North America today, and many people became empowered due to her commitment, dedication, and effort

Male peer support and woman abuse: The current state of knowledge

This paper reviews the current empirical literature on the relationship between male peer support and woman abuse in intimate, heterosexual relationships. Suggestions for future quantitative and qualitative studies are provided. Furthermore, this review concludes with a call for more rigorous attempts at theory construction and testing

Women's fear of crime and abuse in college and university dating relationships

Several government-sponsored victimization surveys have found women's fear of crime to be much higher than that of men even though their probability of being victimized is much lower than men's. On the basis of these results, several criminologists contend that women's fear is subjectively based. However, government surveys have not adequately examined the consequences of the physical, sexual, and psychological abuse of women by male intimates. Feminist researchers contend that these assaults greatly contribute to a generalized fear of crime that is objectively based. Using data from a national survey on female abuse in Canadian college/university dating relationships, this study tested and failed to support the feminist hypothesis that violence by male intimates results in higher levels of fear. However, an examination of an ex post facto hypothesis assessing the relationship between fear in private places (the home) and abuse by male dating partners found positive correlations. Women who had been psychologically or sexually victimized by male dating partners felt more insecure in their own homes than other women. These increased feelings of fear were linked to experiences of sexual coercion, unwanted sexual touching, psychological abuse, and sexual abuse. The results suggest that women reassess their feelings of fear when victimized by male intimates. In particular, places generally viewed as safe by women, their own homes, are seen as more threatening than they had been in the past

An economic exclusion/male peer support model looks at 'wedfare' and woman abuse

In recent years ‘‘welfare reform’’ has become a vehicle for many neo-conservative social commentators to invoke marriage vows as a cure for poverty and the abuse of poor women. Their basic claim is that cohabiting relationships are not only more violent than marriages, but that married couples are happier, healthier, and wealthier than cohabiting ones. A policy then of encouraging cohabitants to marry, they claim, would lead to increased family wealth and decreased family violence. We examine these claims in this article, along with the alternative argument that marriage per se is not a solution to these problems. Alternatively we propose an economic exclusion/male peer support model that explains why many cohabiting men abuse women in intimate relationships. If forcing these couples to marry is not a solution, then structural solutions are necessary, along with progressive policy suggestions that address the antecedents of poverty and abuse

Taking Woman Abuse Seriously: A Critical Response to the Solicitor General of Canada's Crime Prevention Advice

While women experience male violence and intimidation in both public and private settings, the most serious and common threats to their physical and psychological well-being are abusive acts committed by known men. However, the Solicitor General of Canada's recent crime advice to women does not address this problem. The principal objective of this paper is to show how this discourse obscures the reality of woman abuse in Canada