Critical Reflections On Women Family Crime And Justice

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.

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.

Women and families within the criminal justice system (CJS) are increasingly the focus of research and this book considers the timely issues concerning experiences of punishment, abuse and justice. With insights from frontline practice and from the lived experiences of women, the collection examines prison experiences in a post-COVID-19 world, domestic violence and the successes and failures of family support. A companion to the first edited collection, Critical Reflections on Women, Family, Crime and Justice, the book sheds new light on the challenges and experiences of women and families who encounter the CJS. Accessible to both academics and practitioners and with real-world policy recommendations, this collection demonstrates how positive change can be achieved.

Women and families within the criminal justice system (CJS) are increasingly the focus of research and this book considers the timely issues concerning experiences of punishment, abuse and justice. With insights from frontline practice and from the lived experiences of women, the collection examines prison experiences in a post-COVID-19 world, domestic violence and the successes and failures of family support. A companion to the first edited collection, Critical Reflections on Women, Family, Crime and Justice, the book sheds new light on the challenges and experiences of women and families who encounter the CJS. Accessible to both academics and practitioners and with real-world policy recommendations, this collection demonstrates how positive change can be achieved.

Gendered Justice seeks to enhance knowledge and practice in relation to criminalised women and anyone affected by their imprisonment. It calls for compassionate trauma-informed, and gender-specific approaches. As editor Dr Lucy Baldwin explains, ‘How society engages with women coming into contact with the Criminal Justice System can have a profound and lasting effect on their lives, so it is important to ensure that the impact is an informed and positive one’. In chapters by experts from diverse backgrounds, the book examines a carefully selected mix of developments including in topical areas such as women’s rights, help and support, stigma, domestic abuse, sentencing, racism, disadvantage, poverty, deviance, labelling, homelessness, stereotyping, missed opportunities, silencing, fairness, prison visits, desistance from crime, unmet needs, and making a difference. A key text for gender aware readers/researchers which includes accounts of ‘lived experience’. Outlines tools, methods and best practice. Reviews ‘An important and inspirational book which should be compulsory reading for policy-makers and sentencers’– Professor Loraine Gelsthorpe, Cambridge University (from the Foreword).

Bringing together cutting-edge feminist research, this collection uses participatory, inclusive and narrative methodologies to highlight the lived experiences of women involved with the criminal justice system.

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.

Bringing together academics and professionals, this edited collection considers key issues in current criminal justice policy and practice related specifically to women to answer the important question: are women being failed by the criminal justice system? In a landscape where women’s involvement in the criminal justice system still tends to be ignored or lost in discussions about men, contributors place special emphasis on women as both victims and offenders. The chapters cover a wide range of topics relating to women and crime, including: violent and sexual victimisation, violent offending, sentencing and punishment, and rape myths. Since the peak of feminist criminal justice scholarship in the 1990s, the place of women in the criminal justice system has arguably slipped down the agenda and the authors of this collection draw on original research to make the compelling case for a swift remedy to this. Drawing on recent academic studies and professional experience to set an agenda for future research – as well as legal and policy reform – this book injects new life into the dialogue surrounding women and the criminal justice system. Innovative and timely, this collection of essays holds broad appeal to academics and practitioners, as well as students of criminology, criminal justice and law, and all those with an interest in feminism, justice, and inequality.