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(In)Justice Systems

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Desisting Sisters

Part of the book series: Critical Criminological Perspectives ((CCRP))

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Abstract

Having examined three thematic explanations for desistance, this chapter moves on to consider interventions by the Criminal Justice System (CJS). In particular, the chapter examines the criminal justice paradigm ‘Transforming Rehabilitation’ (TR) and its links to ‘Payment by Results’ (PbR), focusing on their problematic nature, particularly in the context of women’s desistance. The rhetoric of the TR agenda to include PbR is unhelpful to women attempting desistance. Desistance requires maintenance and may include deviations. When employing binary measures of reoffending, failure to comply will inevitably result in restigmatisation. Additionally PbR threatens to draw funding away from the smaller female proportion of the CJS in favour of concentration on male outcomes which are often more likely to produce positive quantitatively positive results. This chapter challenges the equating of desistance with conformity to socially constructed ideals of what it is to be a ‘pro social’ woman. Social justice in the form of community movements are considered as alternatives to the punitive CJS. This chapter links the narratives of resilience and survival presented by staff members and connects them with the desistance narratives of women attempting to travel desistance journeys.

‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’

‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat.

‘I don’t much care where—’ said Alice.

‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat

—Taken from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, also on the wall of the Daffodil Centre in Northton, where group meetings were held

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For example welfare, education and health policy and practice.

  2. 2.

    See Annison and Brayford (2015) for a detailed examination.

  3. 3.

    Thinking Skills Programme.

  4. 4.

    For a theoretical overview see Scott and Codd (2010).

  5. 5.

    Such as the campaign to reclaim the former Holloway prison site for a Women’s Centre and social housing.

  6. 6.

    The women interviewed were contacted through the services and may therefore have been more likely to take a positive view of them.

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  1. School of Humanities and Social Science, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK

    Úna Barr

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Correspondence to Úna Barr .

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Barr, Ú. (2019). (In)Justice Systems. In: Desisting Sisters. Critical Criminological Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14276-6_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14276-6_6

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-14275-9

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