Ian White

Reviews : Specificity in Probation Practice KATHLEEN DESPICHT UEA Social Work Monograph, 1987 pb; £2.95

tidies and reaches the conclusion that women do indexed commit Vð1’;Y little crime, relative to men. She lhks1ifSW £ecfl0nnouspressums on women to conform in a male dominated society, and the œntrols exerted on them at home, in public and at work. She believes that if one is to understand women’s behaviour in relation to crime it is necessary to study c~~o~ty and the pressures to conform rather than deviance. In a fascinating chapter on the images of deviant women in our

Reviews : Licensed to Live J B COKER AND J P MARTIN Basil Blackwell, 1985; £17.50p; hb; 275pp

most interesting results, with those of the supervising probation officer. The authors conclude that, ’It is clear that, if they wish to assist the released lifer, probation officers should first abandon the social work dogma of individual pathology, and second cultivate-the skill a~dartistry ofdevelopin~~nutual respectandtrust. Furthermore, probation officers should jettison the outmoded shibboleths of psyhco-analysis, but retain an acknowledgement of the possibility that things may not always be as they outwardly appear. They must try to understand that man’s own perceptions of his position and confer dignity by recognising that he can manage on his own, providing only that he has free access to a ’right’ probation officer when he chooses.’ °

Residential Work: The Cinderella of the Probation Service?

A former Hotel Warden argues for the integration of residential work into mainstream probation process.