Loraine Gelsthorpe

Re-visioning Men's Violence Against Female Partners

This article considers some of the tensions surrounding criminal justice interventions to deal with mens violence against their female partners. Some commentators argue for the increased criminalisation and penalisation of violent men, and others focus on a more caring vision of justice, for example. This article reviews what has been achieved to deal with mens violence via the law and criminal justice system and explores the potential of more restorative approaches in this sphere.

Providing for women offenders: the risks of adopting a payment by results approach

While the evidence base for what works with male offenders is imperfect, that for women is even more limited. This reflects the general tendency in penal policy and practice and in criminological research to neglect women who offend either because it is assumed that what works for men will work for women, or because their small numbers lead to women being ignored entirely. In this article, the emerging evidence on women is reviewed in order to consider what we now know about women’s needs and about best practice in responding to those needs. The extent to which this evidence provides a sufficiently robust and definitive base for the development of a criminal justice ’market’ is then considered in relation to the four main potential benefits claimed for a payment by results approach: greater efficiency; greater innovation; reduced cost; and a broader range of services. The results suggest that a number of important challenges may stand in the way of such benefits being realized in practice in relation to promoting and sustaining community based services for women. These include: defining, estimating and measuring impact; achieving a level of change which is sufficient to attract suppliers; and an inability to value outcomes and to identify and allocate benefits.

Do We Need a Naughty Step? Rethinking the Parenting Order after Ten Years

This article takes a critical look at the ideology and functioning of the parenting order, tracing its political and legislative history and reasons for its geographically varied and largely limited use. It questions the need for mandated parental training which is, anyway, unlikely to prevent offending by children aged over ten years.

Women, crime and control

On the surface, Punishing the Poor (Wacquant, 2009a) is about prisons in America; however, its real concern is with what Wacquant calls the ‘paradox of neoliberal penality’ – the way in which the power of the state as expressed in increasing rates of incarceration and punishment more generally have grown over the past 30 years. He argues that the penal state has extended to envelop those on the margins of the market economy, and thus that we need but one analytic framework to understand neoliberal penality, a framework which follows both the contours of prisons and state welfare provision. In Prisons of Poverty (2009b), Wacquant traces the emergence and internationalisation of the policies and practices designed to dismantle the welfare state through a ‘network of Reaganera conservative think-tanks’ and through the media and pro-market policy institutes. At a general level, Wacquant argues that the logic of neoliberalism demands new policies to cope with the aftermath of labour market deregulation on the lowest stratum of society. In essence, it is suggested that the boundaries between penal and welfare interventions have become less distinguishable than hitherto. As Wacquant puts it:

Back to basics in crime control: weaving in women

This essay identifies areas of analysis which David Garland neglects in The Culture of Control. The essential argument being that greater attention to the influence of feminism and the treatment of female offenders and victims would have enriched his interpretation of the culture of control. The essay suggests that the treatment of women in criminal justice matters exemplifies the apparently dualistic and polarised penal policies that Garland describes so well. The recent huge increases in the number of women sentenced to imprisonment, in particular, are inexplicable, and point to a critical paradox in criminal justice system thinking. The essay also includes with some reflections on the future of crime control in relation to women. One important question is whether or not the future of crime control is inevitably or necessarily gendered. Thus the essay touches on the gender neutral versus gender specific and equality versus difference debates and their irreconcilable elements, as well as on possible ways of dealing with them, and concludes with some thoughts on the potential of renewed interest in the concept of citizenship and justice.

Looking for Trouble: A Recent History of Girls, Young Women and Youth Justice

This article summarizes key issues in the historical conceptualization of, and responses to, girls’ delinquency. Drawing on historical material, we tease out distinctive elements of the conception and perception of girls’ delinquency in England and Wales. We demonstrate some of the inherent and pervasive myths, muddles and misconceptions in their treatment and outline the implicit as well as the explicit reinforcement of gender stereotypes which have informed theory, policy and practice over time. Yet whilst ‘welfare’ perspectives have often brought trouble for girls in terms of excessive intervention, modern ‘justice’ perspectives have perhaps criminalized girls’ genuine welfare needs.

'What works' with women offenders: The past 30 years

In this article the authors review the development of ideas about working with women offenders over the past 30 years. They provide an overview of articles appearing in Probation Journal related specifically to women offenders, set in the context of criminological thinking about female offending and current government policy.

Women and Criminal Justice

This article outlines some general themes concerning perceived judicial paternalism toward women offenders, punishment for offences against gender roles, and the increasing use of imprisonment for women, as well as highlighting some positive policy developments concerning women and criminal justice and what we know about ‘what works’ with women. The article includes brief concluding reflections on what has still to be addressed in terms of recognizing women offenders as victims and not just offenders. Womens experiences of criminal justice, wherever they are, may also reflect complex intersections of injustices that characterize their lives.

In the Eyes of Hong Kong Chinese Female Drug Offenders

The rehabilitative model of probation with its inherent social work values, knowledge and methods of intervention remains the dominant approach to the supervision of offenders in Hong Kong. The major aim of this paper is to look at the perceptions and experiences of 10 female drug offenders aged from 19 to 30 of their one-year community probation sentence, using a gender analysis of criminality and drug misuse. Allowing female offenders to speak is essential not only in understanding their problems and needs related to their offending behaviour but also to empower them to inform practitioners what in practice will work best with them. According to data generated from in-depth face-to-face interviews, females used drugs as a means of coping with relationship breakdowns and their complex lifestyles, and preferred being treated as friends rather than criminals who required close supervision. These women also quoted the support of their family, and their own determination as being the most important factors to bring about change in their offending behaviour. In relation to the Chinese culture, it is argued that a concern for personal relationships is an important part of probation work in order to reduce the risk of reoffending.

Women and Sentencing: Challenges and Choices

Baroness Corston’s report: A review of women with particular vulnerabilities in the criminal justice system made a series of recommendations to bring about improvements in relation to the treatment of women in the criminal justice system. Now, some six years after her report, we find that it is well recognised that women face very different hurdles from men in their journey towards a law abiding life, and that responding appropriately and effectively to the problems that bring women into the criminal justice system require a distinct approach. (Justice Select Committee report: Women Offenders: After the Corston Report. Second Report of Sessions 2013–2014. London: House of Commons.)