‘It was a safe place for me to be’: Accounts of attending women’s community services and moving beyond the offender identity

TY - JOUR

T1 - ‘It was a safe place for me to be’

T2 - Accounts of attending women’s community services and moving beyond the offender identity

AU - Radcliffe, Polly

AU - Hunter, Gillian

PY - 2016/1/1

Y1 - 2016/1/1

N2 - Based on qualitative analysis of interviews with women attending Women’s Community Services (WCSs) in England and Wales, the paper highlights narrative strategies through which women refute the offender identity. Accounts suggest that relationships with key workers and peers and the education and employment opportunities available at the WCSs are crucial in supporting desistance from offending. In addition, the accounts demonstrate an awareness of the social structural disadvantage in which offending is embedded on the part of staff and women attending the services. The implication of the critique of Gender Responsive Programming for our findings is discussed. In the face of a renewed emphasis by the Ministry of Justice on the robustness of community sentences and uncertainty of funding for WCSs in the newly marketized probation provision, the paper argues that WCSs have provided decriminalizing and desistance opportunities for women.

AB - Based on qualitative analysis of interviews with women attending Women’s Community Services (WCSs) in England and Wales, the paper highlights narrative strategies through which women refute the offender identity. Accounts suggest that relationships with key workers and peers and the education and employment opportunities available at the WCSs are crucial in supporting desistance from offending. In addition, the accounts demonstrate an awareness of the social structural disadvantage in which offending is embedded on the part of staff and women attending the services. The implication of the critique of Gender Responsive Programming for our findings is discussed. In the face of a renewed emphasis by the Ministry of Justice on the robustness of community sentences and uncertainty of funding for WCSs in the newly marketized probation provision, the paper argues that WCSs have provided decriminalizing and desistance opportunities for women.

KW - Community sentences

KW - Desistance

KW - Gender

KW - Offender identity

KW - Stigma

KW - Women’s Community Services

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85046015127&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1093/bjc/azv093

DO - 10.1093/bjc/azv093

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85046015127

SN - 0007-0955

VL - 56

SP - 976

EP - 994

JO - British Journal of Criminology

JF - British Journal of Criminology

IS - 5

ER -