Women In Criminal Justice Article Reviews Examples

The British Journal of Community Justice Vol.12 (2):57-66 is an article that discusses how the Corrections Victoria in Australia. The article identified the risk factors that drive women into offending and develop an extraordinary response to the women offenders. The report emphasizes particularly on support and re-integration of these women into the community.Moreover, it looks at the factors that influence women’s self-efficacy, as well as their community integration. The document further outlines the development of The Better Pathway Strategy. The strategy was developed with the realization of the implications of women’s imprisonment as far reaching, with both economic, as well as the social costs being incurred by both the family and the society. As a result, the gender-responsive strategy was then created in 2005 by the Victorian Corrections in partnership with the governmental and non-governmental organizations.
Similarly, the article reports of the effectiveness and the impacts of the Better Pathway Programs in the reduction of the cases of women re-offending. These reports consist of the post-release survey results of sampled women released from the correctional centers. According to the article, the studies conducted involved interviewing women just prior to theirreleasefollowed by second and third interview follows at the third and the sixth months respectively after the release.According to the journal, the statistics presented for the period before the implementation of the gender-responsive initiative, noted a general trend of an increasing women population in prisons. The trend further demonstrated an increased application of remand on offender women. Remand, however, compromises opportunities of the women to engage in programs meant to encourage desistance.
According to the article, theidentified risk factors that influenced the use of custody for women are those consistent with the international research around the women. Health, trauma, addiction debt, victimization, homelessness and family issues have been singled out as the primary causes of the women imprisonment. Ironically, these factors triggers high social and personal needs in the women yet they are neither addressed by the community nor the prison services. As a result, these women are left predisposed to the risk of re-offending and re-imprisonment. Luckily, the gender responsive strategy through the Better Pathway initiative is working to achieve the unmet needs by according practical support to these women. A number of specific support offered to these women include: financial and debt management, family reunification and parenting skills, direct assist with court issues as well as training, education, and employment
Moreover, the article discusses the programs developed to attend to the women’s social and personal needs. The programs are structured to focus on the women’s specific support and treatment needs such as drugs and alcohol rehabilitation. In addition, the programs incorporate transitional services such as mentoring to aid in adherence to community order once released. The investment in this program is done with an approach to reduce the population of women in the prison by reducing the women’s probability of reoffending. The core principle underlying housing program is based on the realization that lack of appropriate and a secure housing for women existing in prison may result in expensive impacts. On the other hand, family and children support programs are based on the knowledge that reinforcement of the family integration and stable accommodation results in a more sustainable transition from the imprisonment. The programs are further structured to help the women in realizing the nature and the impacts of family violence and its effects on the family.
In a bid to respond to women’s needs, the article quotes (PriceWaterhous, 2009) to have identified women offenders’ highest priorities to be family reunification and accommodation. Education, wealth, and employment are ranked as the subsequent needs by the women. The women appreciated the programs that are directed to their high priority needs to have the greatest impacts. The Better Pathways initiative has seen a reduction of in the rates of women in prison in the period between 2003 and 2008. However, the major challenge observed in the implementation of the program is the maintenance of the services in an escalating financial, offending and political context.
In conclusion, the article outlines the political context in support of the program as the joined-up policy commitment across the areas such as housing and health sector. The article further challenges the rising call for the more punitive responses to women; instead it proposes the use of community re-integration as well as diversions. Lastly, thedocument recommends more political attention in funding the community-based approaches which arethe key to the women’s successful transition. Such investments would lead them away from their offending characteristics.