Title: Provision for Women Offenders in the Community1
Abstract: Abstract The government's recent provision of £9.5 million to establish demonstration projects to provide integrated community services for female offenders was a welcome development. It is unlikely that continued special funding will be available for such projects so it is essential that lessons learned from these projects are disseminated widely to facilitate the mainstreaming of good practice. This paper considers the context for this development and presents the results of a recent review of provision for women offenders (Gelsthorpe, Sharpe and Roberts 2007) and recommendations for future developments. Key words: female offenders; gender; women; community sentences; ethicality; victimisation; community. Introduction The theme of this paper, the provision for women offenders in the community, has Brian Williams very much in mind. It centres upon the possibilities for doing much more with and for women offenders in the community than hitherto and touches on four topics close to Brian's heart and scholarship: firstly the moral or public dimensions of criminology (engagement with policy-makers); secondly, ethicality (in terms of appropriateness of responses to victims and offenders rather than the narrow interpretation of ethics meaning codes of practice); thirdly, victimisation (recognising that many women offenders are victims too); and fourthly, community (the potential role of the community in resettling and reintegrating offenders - alongside other roles in facilitating restorative justice perhaps). The Moral Dimensions of Criminology Nigel Walker (1987) discusses 'criminology proper' (as opposed to 'deviology' as he put it and which 1 take to mean the sociology of deviance), as having several objects of study: a) the natural history of criminal behaviour b) the explanation of criminal behaviour c) the consequences and ethics of 'criminalizing' or decriminalizing' conduct d) ways of dealing with criminal behaviour e) the study of victims of criminal behaviour. He goes on to say that Perhaps it is inevitable that involvement in one or more of these sorts of study should lead some criminologists to seize a bow of burning gold, and aim their arrows of desire at weak points in the system of law-enforcement or even in the structure of society. They may become penal reformers or social moralists or magistrates. The may sit on parole boards, on boards of prison visitors...' [as they were then known] '...or on departmental committees. This is not a sinful, inconsistent, or unprofitable use of their spare time: if they did not do so their places would be taken by people who know less about the subject (Walker, 1987: 5-6). I take this to be a message that it is not particularly the role or duty of criminologists to engage with the real world. But there is much to take issue with here. As Simon Holdaway and Paul Rock have described in what 1 think is an important contribution to the history of criminology, Thinking about Criminology, personal values and beliefs have an important role in the type of theorizing we 'reflect upon and mould within our research' (1998:177). We can see how the contributors have gained from their personal experiences, whether this be Clifford Shearing who writes of the ways in which the study of sociology 'enabled his reflection upon the system of apartheid in which he had grown up', or Betsy Stanko, who in writing about her experiences as a woman, makes clear the links between her personal experiences and the 'subsequent ways in which she has endeavoured to understand her research as an outworking of the professional task' (1998: 177). The importance of this book, for me, is that it emphasises the need to reflect on the influences playing on our research and writing. The contributors remind us that our subject matter is the 'flesh and blood, the relationships which entwine us all. To be reflective about the social world in all its ambiguity and complexity is to be open to new possibilities for criminological research' (1998:182). …
Publication Year: 2009
Publication Date: 2009-06-22
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 150
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