Professional decision making and women offenders: Containing the chaos?

Abstract

This article draws on the findings from research undertaken in south-east Scotland in 2008 which sought to identify the characteristics of female offenders and to document the views of policy makers and practitioners regarding the experiences of women involved in the Scottish criminal justice system. Despite Scotland having retained a stronger 'welfare' focus than elsewhere in the UK (e.g. McAra, 2008), this is not reflected in the treatment of women who offend, with the rate of female imprisonment having almost doubled in the last ten years and community based disposals falling short of a welfare-oriented system. This article explores why the treatment that women offenders receive in the criminal justice system may be harsh and disproportionate both in relation to their offending and in relation to the treatment of men. It is argued that interventions with women need to be initiated earlier in their cycle of offending and at an earlier stage in the criminal justice process but also that the wide-ranging health, welfare, financial and behavioural needs of women who offend cannot be met solely within an increasingly risk-averse and punitive criminal justice environment.

Establishing a ‘Corstonian’ continuous care pathway for drug using female prisoners: Linking Drug Recovery Wings and Women’s Community Services

“…Indeed it has been argued that time in prison exacerbates women's problems to the extent that they return to the community in a far worse position than they were before their sentence (Barry and McIvor, 2010). There is also evidence that women are often sent to prison unnecessarily despite frequently presenting a low risk to the public and most commonly committing low level non-violent offences (McIvor and Burman, 2011).…”

‘Holistic’ Community Punishment and Criminal Justice Interventions for Women

“…It is acknowledged that in most cases, this goal appears better served within the ‘community’ rather than in the prison, and practical developments and policy attention in Scotland have increasingly focused on providing ‘holistic’ services to criminalised women by attempting to create links between the criminal justice system and ‘community’ (Loucks et al . ; Barry and McIvor ; Easton and Matthews ; Burgess, Malloch and McIvor ) despite the lack of clarity within these debates regarding what ‘community’ means, or is taken to represent (Corston ; Gelsthorpe, Sharpe and Roberts ) …”

The Failure of Recall to Prison: Early Release, Front-Door and Back-Door Sentencing and the Revolving Prison Door in Scotland

“…However, risk assessment is far from accurate, often overrating the risk of reoffending and confusing criminogenic and non-criminogenic needs (e.g. Hannah-Moffat and Maurutto, 2010), notably amongst women offenders (McIvor and Kemshall, 2002;Barry and McIvor, 2010), and we return to this topic in the following section.…”

“…In Scotland, women comprise approximately 16 per cent of those prosecuted, 8 per cent of those imprisoned, 23 per cent of those given DTTOs and 18 per cent of those on probation (Malloch and McIvor, 2011), and yet it is increasingly apparent that both prison and community-based disposals are not necessarily women-friendly (Barry & McIvor, 2010;Malloch and McIvor, 2011). Women are also more likely than men to breach community-based disposals because of an inability to comply rather than because of further offending (Barry and McIvor, 2010).…”

“…Women are also more likely than men to breach community-based disposals because of an inability to comply rather than because of further offending (Barry and McIvor, 2010). Women find it difficult to attend appointments (not least with several criminal justice agencies concurrently), have childcare commitments which preclude certain community-based disposals, cannot afford to travel to and from often centrally-located social work departments, and may fear meeting old 'associates' or abusive ex-partners whilst attending social work departments (Malloch and McIvor, 2011).…”