Fall 2019

DWCers,

This is my last letter as Chair of the Division on Women and Crime, and I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for partnering with me in this journey. The love, affection and support that I have received from some of the brightest women I have gotten to know these past two years has been the source of immense joy. I have seen brilliance, intelligence, innovation, wisdom, courage, determination and kindness in our members, and I have been inspired.

In the last two years we have done what DWC has traditionally done for many years now, such as internal awards, newsletter, graduate scholarships, external nominations, business and social events at ASC etc. Additionally, we have had the opportunity to stand on the shoulders of giants before us to innovate and embark in many new directions. None of this would have been possible without the hard work of DWC’s committee members and the outstanding leadership and dedication of our Committee Chairs who worked along with members of DWC’s executive council. The success and growth of DWC, and the excitement we have generated is evident in the large number of nominations we have received this year for the four available positions on the DWC Executive Council.

BOX-1: NEW INITIATIVES & ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• Established three new travel awards totaling $51,000 by fundraising $28,500 with match funding of $22,500 from Feminist Criminology.
• Added two honorable mention categories ($500 x 4 awards) in the Larry Siegel & Feminist Criminology Graduate scholarships.
• Established the Student Poster award category with fundraising efforts totaling $2000.
• Established the Dr. Christine Rasche Mentoring Program which is now in its second year and supports more than twenty mentor-mentee pairs with a fundraising effort totaling $1000.
• For the first time, DWC hosted a Congressional Briefing at the Capitol Hill. Fundraised $3500 for food and videography expenses. Twelve DWCers participated in this briefing to speak about evidence-based policies related to women as victims, offenders and practitioners in the criminal justice system.
• Developed a special issue of Translational Criminology with ten policy focused articles based on the presentations made at the congressional briefing.
• For the first time, DWC submitted public comments to regulations.gov regarding proposed Title IX changes.
• For the first time, DWC participated in The Commission on the Status of Women’s (CSW63) annual two-week session at the United Nations headquarters in New York where we hosted six events. More than thirty-two scholars, practitioners and policy makers participated, a large majority of participants were DWCers.
• Developed a forthcoming special issue titled CSW63 and the Social Protection of Women and Girls: Links to Crime and Justice for the International Journal of Crime, Justice and Social Democracy based on selected presentations made at CSW63.
• Started DWC’s YouTube Channel which hosts videos of DWC sponsored events, prominent feminist criminologists etc.
• Initiated a DWC T-Shirt fundraiser at the ASC which generated about $1000 in funds and exceptional publicity for DWC.
• Started DWC sponsored Policy Panels at ASC annual meetings in 2018. Three panels, on women as victims/survivors, offenders and practitioners in the CJ system, with presentations by researchers, policy makers and practitioners. Three more are planned for 2019.
• Increased the number and scope of DWC sponsored workshops at ASC in 2018 and 2019.
• Developed a partnership with National Institute of Justice to host DWC NIJ Violence against Women related panels at ASC 2019.
• Organized a signature campaign to place two DWCers on the ASC ballot, one for President and one for Executive Counsellor.

The box above lists some of the original accomplishments of DWC under my chairship, but I would be remiss not to mention some of the challenges facing us:

  • We were very successful in putting together a highly motivated team of DWCers to work on the Title IX comments document. However, the ASC board was reticent to support or endorse the document. We need to engage in conversations with the ASC leadership by speaking up at the ASC Board meetings and sending emails to the ASC Officers to advocate about all policy issues, especially those concerning women. Isn’t it important for Criminology, as an academic discipline so closely engaged with human lives, to engage with policy? For example, please see American Psychological Association’s Policy Page.
  • On its website, ASC lists its 67 Presidents since 1939. Only 11 are names of women. The first woman president was Joan McCord (1989), followed by Joan Petersilia (1990) and later, Freda Adler (1995), Margaret Zahn (1998) and Julie Horney (2005). After Joanne Belknap’s presidency (2014), we had a series of women ASC Presidents (Candace Krusttschnitt, 2015; Ruth Peterson, 2016; Karen Heimer, 2018; Meda Chesney-Lind, 2019 and Sally Simpson 2020). However, things appear to be changing. For the 2021 ASC Presidency, there was no woman on the ASC ballot. Through a signature campaign, we were able to place two highly qualified DWC women on the ballot, one for President and one for Executive Counselor, but they did not win. We are pleased to note that Janet Lauritsen is on the ballot for the ASC 2022 Presidency. However, in general, even though we have many qualified women in the DWC and ASC, our external nominations committee finds it extremely difficult to find women who would accept being nominated for the ASC Presidency. We have initiated a Visionary Training Workshop in ASC 2018 and 2019 to address leadership issues. However, that alone will not do, DWC needs the continued involvement of seasoned DWC scholars to move the needle in this regard.
  • We have grown tremendously as a Division and the constitution needs to be revised to meet our changing needs. For example, we do not have any provisions in place for situations when someone on the Executive Council needs to take a leave of absence; or to appoint temporary officers in such situations so that the business of DWC can go on; the chair position is open to any DWC member nominated/willing to run for the position without any requirement of experience on the Executive Such matters leave the DWC’s work vulnerable, and/or places a heavy burden on the chair and other members of the EC. DWC’s constitution needs to be updated to meet our needs. This work has been attempted since 2015. This year, we have a dedicated committee working hard on the constitutional revisions. They have developed a comprehensive draft which will soon be brought to the DWC membership for comment and vote. I request all DWC members to pay careful attention to the forthcoming draft and partake in the process.

I believe, as an organization, we need to think about our identity at the cusp of feminist criminology and translational work nestled within the larger landscape of ASC and the discipline of Criminology. We are the largest ASC division both in membership size as well as operational budget. As a Division, our scholarship cuts across topic areas ranging from women as victims/survivors, offenders, practitioners and policy makers in the criminal justice system. However, we are different from other divisions organized around these topics because, as educators and researchers, we embrace the feminist intersectional perspective. The word ‘feminist’ itself implies ‘activist’. As DWC’s chair, I have tried my best to create opportunities for our members that manifest activism. As I pass on the gavel, I believe now is a good time to evaluate our priorities.

I call upon the next chair of DWC to start with assessing the needs of the DWC. While all other traditional DWC activities need attention, answers to questions in Box-2 will help develop a strategic plan for DWC responsive to its members’ needs. Such a plan will help institutionalize activities that our members value, develop financial strategies to sustain them and help retain institutional memory.

In closing, I want to thank numerous people for their help and guidance, you know who you are! There is one person without who none of this would have been possible, Amanda Burgess-Proctor. First, if I had not seen the phenomenal work she had done as chair of DWC, I would never have considered running for elections. Second, without her unwavering support I would not have been able to achieve the many things listed here.

Again, I thank you ALL for giving me this amazing opportunity to serve as DWC’s Chair!

Sincerely,
Sheetal Ranjan
Chair, Division on Women and Crime

BOX-2: SHOULD DWC…
• consider evidence-based policy & practice related work important enough to engage in as a Division?
• make congressional briefings in Washington DC a regular feature of its activities? How often?
• make participation and attendance at yearly United Nations CSW in New York a regular feature of DWC’s activities?
• be working to increase the scope of DWC’s work internationally? Within communities of color?
• increase its engagement with LGBTQA scholarship and scholars?
• create more opportunities for DWC scholars at teaching institutions? How?
• be working to increase diversity of leadership within DWC and/or ASC? How?
• be expanding the scope and depth of workshop offerings at the ASC? On what topic areas?
• continue to offer DWC sponsored policy panels at ASC that bring together researchers, policy makers and practitioners to deliberate about pressing problems?
• improve presence of DWCers and feminist criminologists on public forums such as Wikipedia and YouTube?
• improve internal processes for functioning more efficiently as a Division?
• be working towards sourcing external funding to sponsor a range of activities to ensure that a wider range of scholars, who may not have university travel funds, can participate in DWC events?
• invest in sustaining the diversity DWC has attracted recently?