Margaret Malloch - Women, Punishment and Social Justice

The prison has often been the focus for concerns about human rights violations and campaigns aimed at achieving social justice for those with an interest in the criminalisation of women. To reduce the number of women imprisoned, a range of policy initiatives have been developed to increase the use of community-based responses to women in conflict with the law. These initiatives have tended to operate alongside reforms to the prison estate and are often defined as community punishment, community sanctions and alternatives to imprisonment. This book challenges the contention that improved regimes and provisions within the criminal justice system are capable of addressing human rights concerns and the needs of the criminalised woman.

This book aims to provide a critical analysis of approaches and experiences of penal sanctions, human rights and social justice as enacted in different jurisdictions within and beyond the UK. Drawing on international knowledge and expertise, the contributors to this book challenge the efficacy of gender-responsive interventions by examining issues affecting women in the criminal justice system such as mental health, age, and ethnicity. Crucially, the book will engage with the paradox of implementing rights within a largely punishment-orientated system.

This book will be of interest to those taking undergraduate and post-graduate courses that examine punishment, gender and justice, and which lend themselves to an international/comparative aspect such as criminal justice/criminology, (international) criminal justice courses; and sociology; as well as professional training for practitioners (criminal justice, social work, health) who work with women in the criminal justice system.

Margaret Malloch is a Senior Research Fellow in the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research at the University of Stirling. Her research interests cover a wide range of topics within the field of crime and social justice but key areas include: gender and justice, criminal justice responses to social issues, critical criminology.

Gill McIvor is Professor of Criminology at the University of Stirling and Co-Director of the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research. Her research interests include community sanctions, problem-solving justice and womens experiences of the criminal justice system and she has published widely in each of these areas.

Routledge Frontiers of Criminal Justice offers the very best in research on criminal justice systems around the world, offering fresh insights on a range of topics in criminal procedure, including policing, prisons, courts, youth justice, community measures, rehabilitation, victimology and forensic science.

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Women, Punishment and Social Justice

Human rights and penal practices

Edited by Margaret Malloch and Gill McIvor

Human rights and penal practices

Edited by Margaret Malloch and Gill McIvor

First published 2013
by Routledge
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Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2013 Margaret Malloch and Gill McIvor for selection and editorial matter; individual chapters, the contributors

The right of Margaret Malloch and Gill McIvor to be identified as editors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Women, punishment and social justice: human rights and penal practices / edited by Margaret Malloch and Gill McIvor.

p. cm. (Routledge frontiers of criminal justice)

1. Women prisonersSocial conditions. 2. Alternatives to imprisonment. 3. Corrections. 4. Human rights. I. Malloch, Margaret S.

II. McIvor, Gill, 1959

HV8738.W67 2012

364.6082dc23

2012016493

ISBN: 9780415529839 (hbk)
ISBN: 9780415637176 (pbk)
ISBN: 9780203084755 (ebk)
ISBN: 9781136193705 (epub)

Typeset in Times New Roman
by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk

PART I
Introduction

PART II
The penal context

PART III
Community sanctions, human rights and social justice

PART IV
Concluding thoughts

This book draws upon presentations and discussions at a series of seminars held in the summer of 2010. The programme of events received funding from the Institute of Advanced Studies (now the Scottish Universities Insight Institute) at the University of Strathclyde and we would like to extend our thanks in particular to Jane Morgan, Patricia Krus and Jane Mallin from the Institute who were willing to share our vision for the programme and provided invaluable practical support. While not all of the contributions to this book were based upon seminar presentations, the majority were. We would also like to acknowledge the contributions made by others who participated in the seminars, particularly those who gave presentations of their ideas as a means of stimulating wider discussion Di Asquith, Susan Batchelor, Ruth Chigwada-Bailey, Lynne Groulx, Claire McNab, Laura Piacentini, Shoshana Pollack and Gilly Sharpe and to Elenea Larrauri and Nancy Loucks who contributed to the organisation of the programme. Our friend and colleague, Jenny Roberts, also took part in the programme with characteristic enthusiasm and energy, sharing with us her experiences of the Asha Centre that she founded and for which she remained a trustee. Sadly, as a result of illness Jenny was unable to be with us for the final seminar and passed away in November 2010. This book is dedicated to her.

Margaret Malloch

Gill McIvor

April 2012

Figures

Tables

Ronald H. Aday is a Professor of Sociology at Middle Tennessee State University, USA.

Alana Barton is a Reader in Criminology and Programme Leader in Criminology and Criminal Justice at Edge Hill University, UK.