Victims or criminals?

by Priyam Singh

This fascinating exploration of female victims and criminals in colonial India lies at the intersection of several fields: colonial history, women's studies, Indian studies, political economy, and the history of crime and punishment. Using an interdisciplinary approach, Dr. Singh argues that women's crime in India was largely induced by colonial intervention, oppression, and exploitation and that the punishment for such crimes was used as a means of social control and repression. Moreover, "deviant behavior," "immorality," and "criminals" - as these terms were defined by the state alone - were most often applied to the lower castes of women, a practice that not only points to conspicuous gender inequality and classism, but also to the very thin line between victim and criminal, between abuse/violation of women and supposed judicial sanctioning for their "crimes.". This analysis of women and criminality under colonial rule sheds light on similar transformations currently taking place in