Abstract:
Whilst positivist criminology has produced masculinist myths about female offenders and victims, feminism radicalised the gender question, but adopted at the same time the classical penal victim-offender dichotomy and merely confined itself to criticising pathologising ideas, than really taking women as a startingpoint sui generis. While applying a true feminist critique of criminology, penal discourse turns out to be the opposite of feminism. This leads to the conclusion, that criminal law cannot be left unproblematised as a neutral helper, as it is sometimes perceived in feminist practice, but is an unsuitable, and in practice also showed to be an unreliable, ally in the women’s struggle.