Beyond victimhood: Feminist criminology and the Beijing platform’s framing of women in criminal justice

The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995) are seminal cornerstones of global gender equality policy that have shaped the work of the Commission on the Status of Women for the past 30 years. They have also served as a basis, benchmark, or ideal for academic researchers to align with global gender equality objectives. However, they have not been the focus of systematic research in feminist criminology. We conducted a systematic content analysis of the text of these outcome documents of the Fourth World Conference on Women to measure their treatments of three core areas of feminist criminology. While both documents powerfully advanced the rights of women and girls, our analysis demonstrates that their treatment of women and criminal justice is notably one-dimensional, framing women primarily as victims while largely overlooking the complex and multifaceted roles they occupy as offenders, detainees, and professionals within the criminal justice system. Our analysis reveals how the Beijing Declaration and the Beijing Platform for Action reinforce a victim-centric paradigm that downplays the structural and systemic injustices faced by women and girls who violate the law, and fail to recognize the accomplishments and challenges faced by women working in law enforcement, judicial, custodial, and peacebuilding professions. In doing so, they reveal a particular gender regime that makes some gains for women’s victimhood, but reinforces traditional gender roles overall. We argue for a more holistic and inclusive approach to gender and justice in global policy frameworks. By broadening the lens beyond victimhood, international gender policy can more effectively contribute to equitable and just criminal justice systems worldwide and truly fulfill the aims of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.