The Division on Women and Crime developed out of the growing interest in the study of gender and women as offenders, victims, and professional employees of the criminal systems.

In the early years of the ASC, individual papers on gender, women, and crime were presented from time to time at the annual meetings. But the first panel session devoted solely to the subject was not formed until 1975. In that year, Freda Adler’s Sisters in Crime and Rita Simon’s Women in Crime had just been published and there was a burst of new interest in the subject. Some 150 persons came to hear papers at that first panel chaired by Freda Adler.

Despite this encouraging beginning, few criminologists seemed to believe that the study of women and crime was central to criminology. Some even questioned how much researchable material there was on the topic. Those who were interested in these issues and who saw gender as a major, though largely ignored, factor in the study of crime began to band together. First gathering on an informal basis, then as a special caucus, and finally as a prospective division within the ASC, members met and worked to ensure a place at all subsequent ASC meetings for papers on gender, women and crime.

By 1981 there were 48 such papers in the program; by 1983 the number of papers on women and crime had almost doubled to 92.  “Division on Women and Crime: A Resolution for the Establishment of Divisions within ASC” was approved by the membership as of October 30, 1980. The ASC Board approved the creation of the Division on Women and Crime at its Board Meeting on November 14, 1981. The DWC formally came into existence as of 3:30 pm on Thursday, November 4, 1982 when the DWC held its first meeting in the Windsor East room of the Toronto Sheraton Hotel. At that meeting, a provisional Executive Board was appointed, with Dr. P.J. Baunach being named chair. The first elected Executive Board took office in 1984, which is the year the division recognizes as its true “founding.” The Division on Women and Crime celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 2004, and celebrated its thirtieth anniversary in 2014 in San Francisco.

The Division on Women and Crime was the second division ever created within the ASC, after the Division on International Criminology.  Since that time, other divisions on Corrections & Sentencing, Critical Criminology, Developmental and Life-Course Criminology, Experimental Criminology, People of Color and Crime, and Victimology have also been developed. However, the Division on Women and Crime remains one of the largest and most active division in ASC. Dozens of panel sessions on gender, women and crime are now routinely interspersed throughout the ASC Annual Meeting Program. In the 1990s the Division worked to support the election of the ASC’s first women Presidents, and to sponsor policy proposals on decarceration of imprisoned women.

A Timeline of Significant Events in the History of the Division on Women and Crime

  • 1975- ASC devotes its first panel to the topic of women and crime at the meetings held in Toronto.
  • 1977- A group of women meet informally in a hotel room at the Atlanta conference to discuss common concerns and interests of women in the ASC.  The group refers to itself as the “Women’s Caucus.”  ASC also holds a panel on women as professionals in criminal justice.
  • 1978- Another informal meeting is held at the ASC conference in Dallas.  ASC holds another panel on women as professionals in criminal justice.  Signs advertising the panel are repeatedly ripped down.
  • 1979- The first “formal” meeting (the start of the breakfast meeting tradition!) of the Women’s Caucus happens at the ASC meeting in Philadelphia.
  • 1980- A formal luncheon meeting and cocktail party is held by the Women’s Caucus at the ASC meeting in San Francisco.  A record twelve panels on women and crime are held at this meeting.  Towards the end of 1980, the group changes its name to “Women in ASC.”
  •  1981- In September, P.J. Baunach sends a letter to the ASC membership soliciting support for the formation of a division.  Nanci Koser Wilson and P.J. Baunach are elected co-chairs of the newly-renamed “Caucus for Women’s Issues” (this is still pre-divisional status).  The historical record, though unclear, suggests that a constitution for the “Division on Women and Crime” was approved by the ASC Executive Board on 11/14/81.
  • 1982-The DWC holds its first meeting on November 4, 1982. The first elections were held at that meeting, and the first elected board consisted of P.J. Baunach as Chair, Nanci Koser Wilson as Vice-Chair, Anna Kuhl as Secretary, and interim Executive Counselors Cathy Spatz-Widom, Christine Rasche, and Ira Silverman.
  • 1984- The first official elections for DWC officers are held.  P.J. Baunach becomes the first elected chair of the DWC, but had already been serving as the appointed chair since 1982.
  • 1994- The DWC celebrated its 10th anniversary.
  • 2004- The DWC celebrated its 20th anniversary.
  • 2014- The DWC celebrated its 30th anniversary.

An incredible archive of DWC materials was created by the late Dr. Christine Rasche, a founding member of the DWC and chair from 1995 – 1997.
VISIT THE ARCHIVE

Chairs of the DWC
(see links for interviews conducted of some past chairs through the ASC Oral History Project)

2021 – 2021    Catherine Kaukinen
2021 – 2021    Venessa Garcia (Chair pro tem)
2020 – 2021    Elaine Arnull (Acting Chair)
2019 – 2020     Hillary Potter
2017 – 2019      Sheetal Ranjan
2015 – 2017      Amanda Burgess-Proctor
2013 – 2015      Kim Cook
2011 – 2013      Amy D’Unger
2009 – 2011     Brenda Sims Blackwell
2007 – 2009    Venessa Garcia
2005 – 2007    Sharon RedHawk Love
2003 – 2005    Susan Sharp
2001 –  2003   Joanne Belknap
1999 – 2001     Nancy Wonders
1997 – 1999     Nicole Hahn Rafter
1995 – 1997     Christine Rasche
1993 – 1995     Lynne Goodstein
1992 – 1993     Lynne Goodstein (Acting)
1991 – 1992     Carole Garrison
1989 – 1991     Meda Chesney-Lind
1988                  Anna F. Kuhl
1982 – 1987     Phyllis Jo Baunach
1981 – 1982     Phyllis Jo Baunach and Nanci Koser Wilson (Co-Chairs of the pre-DWC Caucus for Women’s Issues)

Initial group of organizers: Freda Adler, Edith Flynn, Merry Morash, Barbara Price, Nanci Koser Wilson, Margaret Zahn