Promises, promises: Can the Female Offender Strategy deliver?

Booth, Natalie; Masson, Isla; Baldwin, Lucy

doi:10.1177/0264550518808363

Cited by 13 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 17 publications

(18 reference statements)

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“…However, critics have argued that there is a severe lack of real infrastructure to support women experiencing or who have experienced abuse (Booth et al, 2018). For example, Women’s Aid (2019) have noted that in 2017–2018 an average of 400 referrals to refuges in England and Wales were declined each week.…”

Section: Domestic Abusementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Critical analysis of the Female Offenders Strategy (MoJ, 2018) also does not make for positive reading on the government’s commitment to tackling links between criminalisation and domestic violence. Women in Prison (2018), Sisters Uncut (2018), Coles (2018), and Booth et al (2018) have all pointed to a lack of secure and sustained funding for women facing trauma, as well as the well-known harms inflicted by solutions which lie within CJSs, particularly in imprisonment, but also in the roll-out of residential women’s centres as further sites of control.…”

Section: Domestic Abusementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Arguably the government cannot support vulnerable women while their proposed solutions still lie within the framework of the CJS (Sisters Uncut, 2018). 1 Furthermore, Booth et al (2018) highlight that the language in the Strategy is problematic. For example, the concept of ‘productive citizens’ (MoJ, 2018: 334) suggests criminalised women are unproductive members of society, reinforcing stigmatised portrayals of women and emphasising individualised solutions to structural problems while responsibilising criminalised women, who experience a lack of capital, to undergo individualised change (Hart, 2017b).…”

Section: Domestic Abusementioning

confidence: 99%

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A qualitative investigation into the impact of domestic abuse on women’s desistance

Barr

Christian

2019

Probation Journal

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While criminological literature, criminal justice practice, and to a lesser extent, state policy have acknowledged a link between women’s criminalisation and gendered violence (MoJ, 2018; Österman, 2018; Prison Reform Trust, 2017; Roberts, 2015), there has been much less acknowledgement of the role of historical and contemporaneous experiences of violence in the desistance scripts of criminalised women. Combining findings from two research projects exploring gender and desistance, this article argues that (i) criminalised women’s experiences of gendered violence are such that any exploration of gender and desistance which does not acknowledge this is incomplete, (ii) coercion and control can inform women’s entry into the criminal justice system, (iii) expressions of agency and resistance in abusive interpersonal relationships can also inform women’s offending, yet (iv) women’s experiences of desistance from crime can mask the harm they face in coercive, controlling, and violent relationships. Thus, the article argues for a reframing of desistance from crime as desistance from harm both theoretically and in practice, and considers what this might entail.

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Section: Domestic Abusementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Domestic Abusementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Domestic Abusementioning

confidence: 99%

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A qualitative investigation into the impact of domestic abuse on women’s desistance

Barr

Christian

2019

Probation Journal

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“…This strategy set out an aspirational commitment towards the complex needs and vulnerabilities of women on probation. However, some commentators regarded the strategy as both implausible and inadequate (Booth et al, 2018).…”

Section: Women In the Criminal Justice Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

The stories of eight women managed by a community rehabilitation company during the Covid-19 pandemic

Woolford

2021

Probation Journal

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This study explores the stories of eight women supervised by probation during the first national lockdown in the United Kingdom in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Probation quickly implemented an exceptional delivery model to protect the health and safety of staff and service users. Covid-19 has highlighted societal disparities across the world, it can be suggested that this has hugely impacted the lives of women and further extending the gender inequality gap. Although acknowledging that this is a small-scale study, it does provide a platform for women to voice and share their experiences of both problematic challenges encountered and the opportunities embraced during the first national lockdown. Firstly, the importance of supervisory relationships kept women feeling connected, emotionally supported and provided a source for practical advice. Secondly, the experiences of lockdown were felt differently dependant on the vulnerabilities and complexities of women; in short, the greater the priority need the more issues and obstacles women encountered. Thirdly, remote probation supervision was regarded as the safest and appropriate way to approach the unchartered waters of Covid-19. And finally, there was shared optimism to return to ‘normal’ face-to-face supervision, re-engage with services that had been paused or interrupted to aid recovery and rehabilitation.

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“…For example, generally, women who are mothers are punished more harshly and receive more punitive sentences than men or women without children. This is because women who are also mothers have deviated from what society considers an acceptable caregiving role upon committing crime (Hine, 2019;Booth et al, 2018). When there are similarities in offending, women and men tend to be sentenced equally (Hine, 2019;Kennedy, 1992:22).…”

Section: Gendered Justice Within Criminal Justice Legislation and Policiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Gender on Criminal Justice Policies and Legislation throughout the United Kingdom

Perussich¹

2021

JLCJ

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This article discusses the role of gender in the commission of crime, criminality, and harm prevention by critically examining the notion of crime within theories about women's and men's criminality, as well as the gendered nature of crime control policies throughout the United Kingdom (UK), England, Wales, and Scotland. Gender affects women and men and their criminality within criminal justice discourse and crime control policies. Throughout the literature, there has been a continued focus on women needing to be ‗repaired' when they commit crime because women are seen as having gone outside the traditional role of what it means to be female. On the other hand, the link between hegemonic masculinity and criminal behaviour among men is often ignored within criminal justice policies, highlighting the fact that men, in comparison to women, are viewed differently within criminal justice discourse, policies, and legislation. The concept of hegemonic masculinity and toxic forms of masculinity have not been prominent features in crime reduction or prevention policies. It will be argued that both women and men are failed by a system that does not engage with gendered power and harms within society, whether they be interpersonal or institutional. This creates a breakdown in the idea that women's or men's criminality can be understood and treated as such. Evidence suggests that focusing on the social factors that lead to crime, including the intersection of race with the above-mentioned paradigm, as well as the stereotypes that are associated with criminality, would improve outcomes for groups of women and men. This should be reflected within the criminal justice policy discourse, which is both gendered and racialized, to see a significant decrease in crime. The criminal justice system, on its own, is ill-equipped to reform and reduce criminal activity. A combination of targeted approaches that focus on the factors that lead to offending by women and men, respectively, is required to reduce the harm caused by criminals in the UK.

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Promises, promises: Can the Female Offender Strategy deliver?

Cited by 13 publications

References 17 publications

A qualitative investigation into the impact of domestic abuse on women’s desistance

A qualitative investigation into the impact of domestic abuse on women’s desistance

The stories of eight women managed by a community rehabilitation company during the Covid-19 pandemic

The Impact of Gender on Criminal Justice Policies and Legislation throughout the United Kingdom

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