Authors:
- Outlines a feminist approach to desistance
- Examines and analyses desistance journeys of women with community sentences, to fill a gap in the literature which has focused primarily on the experiences of males
- Challenges the trajectory of policies for ensuring that women desist from crime
- Appeals to academics interested in desistance, criminal justice, social justice and feminist theory as well as (ex) –offenders and practitioners within probation, prison, police services and voluntary agencies and policy makers
Part of the book series: Critical Criminological Perspectives (CCRP)
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
This book provides an important, critical, feminist perspective on desistance theory and practice. It is built around 23 original, narrative interviews with women and the staff of the community projects they attended, as well as a year of observations at Northshire Women’s Centres. The book is concerned with outlining a feminist approach to desistance which recognises that the majority of women in the criminal justice system come from backgrounds of abuse, economic disadvantage and have alcohol, drug and mental health issues. The book is also be concerned with challenging the dichotomy of narratives of victimisation and survival while recognising that women have agency. In doing so, Desisting Sisters contests the neoliberal and patriarchal approach to desistance which promotes women's role as care givers and unpaid volunteer workers. Ultimately, Barr contends that women's desistance can resist neo-liberal, patriarchal constructs, much in the same way that feminist criminology has contended that women's offending more generally, often does. This book will be of particular use and interest to those studying modules on both traditional and critical criminology, criminal justice, psychology, sociology and social work courses.
Reviews
“I can highly recommend the book to my junior researcher colleagues in sociology, social work and psychology who are interested in the social and societal mechanisms of recidivism and rehabilitation: The way in which the authors combine spirited freshness with a matured sense of reality rethink rehabilitation is a valuable masterclass in how to produce relevant and responsive research.” (Cristina Vasilescu, Journal of Probation, November 4, 2019)
Authors and Affiliations
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School of Humanities and Social Science, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK
Úna Barr
About the author
Úna Barr is Lecturer in Criminology at Liverpool John Moores University, UK. She completed her PhD at the University of Central Lancashire, conducting research into the plurality of female experiences of crime, the criminal justice system and the context-specific circumstances of processes that bring about change in offending. Her primary research interests include feminism, abolitionism and desistance.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Desisting Sisters
Book Subtitle: Gender, Power and Desistance in the Criminal (In)Justice System
Authors: Úna Barr
Series Title: Critical Criminological Perspectives
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14276-6
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Law and Criminology, Law and Criminology (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-14275-9Published: 26 April 2019
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-14276-6Published: 11 April 2019
Series ISSN: 2731-0604
Series E-ISSN: 2731-0612
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: X, 270
Topics: Ethnicity, Class, Gender and Crime, Rehabilitation, Social Justice, Equality and Human Rights, Probation, Social Work, Forensic Psychology