This book provides an important, critical, feminist perspective on desistance theory and practice. It is built around 23 original, narrative interviews with women and the staff of the community projects they attended, as well as a year of observations at Northshire Women’s Centres. The book is concerned with outlining a feminist approach to desistance which recognises that the majority of women in the criminal justice system come from backgrounds of abuse, economic disadvantage and have alcohol, drug and mental health issues. The book is also be concerned with challenging the dichotomy of narratives of victimisation and survival while recognising that women have agency. In doing so, Desisting Sisters contests the neoliberal and patriarchal approach to desistance which promotes women's role as care givers and unpaid volunteer workers. Ultimately, Barr contends that women's desistance can resist neo-liberal, patriarchal constructs, much in the same way that feminist criminology has contended that women's offending more generally, often does. This book will be of particular use and interest to those studying modules on both traditional and critical criminology, criminal justice, psychology, sociology and social work courses.

From the denial of abortion rights in Northern Ireland to sexual violence in South Asian communities, this book offers a counter narrative to the criminal justice system’s failures towards women, mapping a feminist criminology for the 21st century.

This Handbook brings together the voices of a range of contributors interested in the many varied experiences of women in criminal justice systems, and who are seeking to challenge the status quo. Although there is increasing literature and research on gender, and certain aspects of the criminal justice system (often Western focused), there is a significant gap in the form of a Handbook that brings together these important gendered conversations. This essential book explores research and theory on how women are perceived, handled, and experience criminal justice within and across different jurisdictions, with particular consideration of gendered and disparate treatment of women as law-breakers. There is also consideration of women’s experiences through an intersectional lens, including race and class, as well as feminist scholarship and activism. The Handbook contains 47 unique chapters with nine overarching themes (Lessons from history and theory; Routes into the criminal justice system; Intersectionality; Sentencing and the courts and community punishments; Specific offences; Incarcerated women’s experiences; Mothers and families; Rehabilitation and reintegration; Practitioner relationships), and each theme includes contributions from different countries as well as the experiences of contributors from different stages in their own journey. International and interdisciplinary in scope, this Handbook is essential reading for scholars and students of criminology, sociology, social policy, social work, and law. It will also be of interest to practitioners, such as social workers, probation officers, prison officers, and policy makers.

Women, Crime and Justice in Context presents contemporary feminist approaches to key issues in criminal justice. It draws together key researchers from Australia and New Zealand to offer a context-specific textbook that covers all of the major debates in the discipline in an accessible way. This book examines both the foundational texts and cutting-edge contributions to the topic and acknowledges the unique challenges and debates in the local Australian and New Zealand context. Written as an entry-level text, it introduces undergraduate students to key theories and debates on the topics of offending, victimization and the criminal justice system. It explores key topics in feminist criminology with chapters exploring sex work, prison abolitionism, community punishment, media representations of crime and victims, and the impacts of digital technology on gendered violence. Centring on an intersectional approach, the book includes chapters that focus on disability, queer criminology, indigenous perspectives, migration and service-user perspectives. The book concludes by exploring future directions in feminist approaches to crime and justice. This book will be essential reading for undergraduates studying feminist criminology, gender and crime, queer criminology, socio-legal studies, intersectionality, sociology and criminal justice.

How do young women negotiate their identity in the shadow of a criminal past? What expectations can these women have and what constraints do they face in embracing change and reform? In this new book, Gilly Sharpe returns to the group of women interviewed in her bestselling book Offending Girls, to ask these questions and more. Building on wide-ranging interviews with young adult women who have experienced a highly punitive climate in both youth justice and welfare policy, this book analyses their vivid personal accounts of stigmatisation and devaluation as former lawbreakers, welfare claimants and mothers, and examines their gendered transitions from youth criminalisation into adulthood. Women, Stigma, and Desistance from Crime exposes how stigma, which is rooted in structural inequality and thrives in societies with deep economic and social divisions, devalues working-class and marginalised women and diminishes their lives. It offers a unique analysis of how criminal stigma is shaped by class-based condescension, welfare inaction and school-based disciplinary punishment, and reveals how stigma is reproduced over time across education, welfare, and penal institutions. Meticulously researched and the first study to examine how the lives of young women previously enmeshed in the youth justice system unfold as they transition to adulthood, this book will be of interest to scholars and students of criminology and criminal justice, sociology, social work, social policy, gender and youth studies, and to practitioners and policy-makers in these fields.

This book contributes to our knowledge of desistance in a developing country. Offering an intercultural dialogue with mainstream explanations, Transitions Out of Crime analyses the transition from crime to conformity among a group of Chilean juvenile offenders. Desistance from crime is not just the cessation of criminal activity itself, but a process of acquiring roles, identities, and virtues; of developing new social ties, and of inhabiting new spaces. This book offers new evidence that shows that the traditional binary between the ‘reformed desister’ and the ‘anti-social persister’ is inaccurate and that the road to desistance contains various oscillations between crime and conformity. Furthermore, this study shows the role that gender plays in shaping, limiting and structuring pathways away from crime. Written in a clear and direct style, this book will appeal to those engaged in criminology, sociology, penology, desistance, rehabilitation, gender studies and all those interested in the transition from crime to conformity outside the Anglo-American orthodoxy.

An Introduction to Penology is a concise, informative, scholarly guide that will speak to a variety of audiences interested in how the notion of punishment plays out in community and custodial settings with people who have broken the law. With a particular focus on prisons and probation, the book provides an opportunity for readers to critically engage with the concept of punishment (in theory and practice) and consider different ways in which we, as a society, can respond to lawbreaking. The text will allow students to pursue a more in-depth study of two of the main criminal justice institutions through the lens of their organisational structures, cultures, service delivery and responses to the needs of minority and vulnerable groups. Throughout the text, students will be encouraged to critically engage with longstanding penological debates taking into consideration the theory, policy and practice of punishment, and will explore ways in which we can rethink penology on an individual and social level and begin to make a case for social justice rather than criminal justice. This innovative and contemporary text is a must read for students studying criminology, criminal justice, penology and those interested in pursuing a career in either the prison or probation services. Lol Burke is Professor in Criminal Justice and Dr Helena Gosling is a Senior Lecturer in Criminal Justice at Liverpool John Moores University.

Women, Trauma, and Journeys towards Desistance: Navigating the Labyrinth provides an examination of women’s desistance from crime from a gender-responsive, trauma-informed perspective. The book is based on the reflections of fifty-six women over a three-year period as they transition from custody to the community. With the women, the author examines how experiences of trauma, victimisation, and intersectional oppression constrain access to traditional desistance supporting processes, including supportive relationships, identity construction, the exercise of agency, and engagement with treatment and interventions, reframing these processes from trauma-informed perspective. The book joins together the women’s insights and experiences with principles of gender-responsive, trauma-informed principles in a framework through which criminal justice practitioners can support women in their efforts to leave crime behind. The framework for practice is a fusion of concepts from desistance theory, principles of gender-responsivity, and trauma-informed practice designed to help women understand the root causes of the problems they face in the present whilst building on their resilience and strengths to achieve their goals for their futures. This book is ideal reading for scholars and students of criminology and criminal justice, particularly rehabilitation, gender and crime, and feminist criminology. It will also be of interest to academics and practitioners of forensic psychology and social work, as well as probation officers, social workers and prison officers.

Drawing on research from the Women, Family, Crime and Justice research network, this collection sheds new light on the experiences of women and families who encounter the UK criminal justice system. Contributions demonstrate how these groups are often ignored, oppressed and victimised, and offer insights and practical recommendations for change.