This thought-provoking collection consists of 11 contributions by invited scholars and activists who presented at the 2003 Oñati Institute workshop on “Women, Crime and Globalization.” The book provides a critical exploration of various expressions of women's victimization in the context of globalization, setting the stage for an emergent feminist global criminology. The contributors, most of whom have their academic homes in law or social sciences, focus on both legally recognized injuries (such as rape, domestic violence, theft) and those that are not legally sanctioned as yet. Some of the injuries examined are apparent and familiar, while others are subtle or have not been discussed in the context of globalization. The authors shed light on harms that result from actions of nation-states, multinational corporations, and international organizations and agencies. They also describe how the harms are shaped by the intersectionality of gender with race, marital status, immigration or refugee statuses, health conditions, poverty, and various social, economic and political contingencies in ways that have been historically overlooked. Thus the works detail women's unique harsh experiences as refugees, immigrants, trafficked persons, battered intimate partners, or victims of natural disasters in first as well as third world countries. In some cases, women's harm is exacerbated by indirect or secondary victimization they suffer as they attempt to seek redress, as they manage the adverse impact of global conditions on their families, or as a result of a general increased level of crime associated with globalization. Women are likewise harmed when their concerns remain invisible in global policies and practices of international agencies (such as the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, or World Bank), or when their voice is not heard in proceedings of national and international tribunals. The collection also details how women in some areas have mobilized to voice their grievances and creatively craft “glocalized” solutions.
The book includes four parts and an introduction by the co-editors (the workshop conveners). In the introduction, the co-editors revive Sutherland's notion of harm to facilitate a broad discussion of the adverse effects of global processes and structures on women. The first part provides position papers that set out the conceptual framework for understanding women's harm in a global context. It calls attention to the detrimental impact of monetary policies, economic structures, and the pursuit of corporate interests on women in the developing world. It emphasizes the importance of the local-global nexus in feminist strategy designed to combat violence against women, and it addresses the variety of risks that economic and religious fundamentalism pose for human security in general and women's safety in particular. The second part includes empirical studies of “women on the move,” analyzing how women fare in external or internal “border panics” created by real or contrived concerns about security (immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers) or morality (sex workers). In the third part, the focus shifts to the potential and limits of human rights approaches in addressing the plight of women in a globally connected world. Despite the strides made in formulating international law and human rights protections, women caught in local, regional, and international armed conflicts, or who suffer health and economic deprivations resulting from them, encounter difficulties in making use of these protections. They learn that it is not easy to identify perpetrators of international crimes, attribute culpability for the damage sustained, or bring responsible parties to justice. In other situations, women members of indigenous populations struggling for group rights often find out that these rights take precedence over their claims as women. The final part addresses methodological concerns in cross-cultural studies, such as how research methods “travel” across countries. The authors also consider the potential of research and theory in global criminology to direct activism and advocacy on behalf of women.
The contributions are presented in a manner that is accessible to audiences from a variety of disciplines and perspectives. Although the book is somewhat uneven in its focus on globalization and its discontent for women, the collection as a whole is a model for venturing into an uncharted area and establishing it as a field of study. The key audiences for this collection on feminist global criminology are scholars and graduate and upper-level undergraduate students in courses in criminology, gender/women's studies, sociolegal studies, and globalization studies. This collection is the first to provide a review of harms and expressions of violence against women in the context of globalization. Its value lies in the broad interpretation of violence against women, which incorporates not only physical but also social, economic, political, and spiritual harm. The book demonstrates that violations of women's integrity and dignity, or reductions in their quality of life, health, freedom, and opportunities that stem from globalization processes or institutions, are timely topics for criminological and sociolegal research in the global era. It also reminds researchers that, in contemporary studies of harm and crime, or in advocacy and activism on behalf of victims, the interaction between the local and the global can no longer be ignored.
