A01=Esther Madriz
abuse
anxiety
Author_Esther Madriz
bad victims
Category=JBSF
Category=JBSF1
Category=JHB
Category=JKV
conservative politics
crime
criminal justice
criminology
culpability
danger
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
fear
fear of crime
female victims
feminism
feminist theory
gender
gender hierarchy
gender studies
good victims
law and order
legal system
media
nonfiction
patriarchy
potential victim
poverty
risk management
social justice
social programs
social science
subservience
threat
threat perception
victims
victims rights
violence against women
vulnerability
women
womens issues
womens studies
Product details
- ISBN 9780520208551
- Weight: 272g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 01 Jul 1997
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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'The possibility of being a victim of a crime is ever present on my mind; thinking about it as natural as breathing' - 40-year-old woman. This is a compelling analysis of how women in the United States perceive the threat of crime in their everyday lives and how that perception controls their behavior. Esther Madriz draws on focus groups and in-depth interviews to show the damage that fear can wreak on women of different ages and socioeconomic backgrounds. Although anxiety about crime affects virtually every woman, Madriz shows that race and class position play a role in a woman's sense of vulnerability. Fear of crime has resulted in public demand for stronger and more repressive policies throughout the country. As funds for social programs are cut, Madriz points out, those for more prisons and police are on the increase. She also illustrates how media images of victims - 'good' victims aren't culpable, 'bad' victims invite trouble - and a tough political stance toward criminals are linked to a general climate of economic uncertainty and conservatism. Madriz argues that fear itself is a strong element in keeping women in subservient and self-limiting social positions.
'Policing' themselves, they construct a restricted world that leads to positions of even greater subordination: Being a woman means being vulnerable. Considering the enormous attention given to crime today, including victims' rights and use of public funds, Madriz's informative study is especially timely.
Esther Madriz teaches in the Sociology Department at the University of San Francisco.
