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Star rating 3/5.

By Katherine Van Wormer.
Springer Publishing
ISBN 0826113958
£43.95

Order through www.nbnplymbridge.com

Written from a feminist perspective by an author with considerable knowledge and experience of the North American criminal justice systems and particularly of their custodial services, this book promotes a "restorative strengths" approach to engaging with the female offender, writes Charlie Beaumont.

This approach requires that the victimisation of women by men and a male-controlled justice system and society must be acknowledged and worked through in individual cases. Successful outcomes may be achieved by appealing to, and developing the strengths of women (akin to motivational interviewing), which will enable them to make good for their offending.

However, the emphasis of this book is too much on the paucity and irrelevance of what prison can provide. A more helpful approach would have been to explore in detail the reasons for the success of community-based programmes, using the restorative strengths approach, so that the reader could actually take something from the book and test it in practice.

Charlie Beaumont, Youth Justice Board.