Book Review: Fragile Moralities and Dangerous Sexualities: Two Centuries of Semi-Penal Institutionalisation
| Date | 01 June 2006 |
| Author | Emma Wincup |
| DOI | 10.1177/0264550506063615 |
| Published date | 01 June 2006 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
178
Probation Journal
The Journal of Community and Criminal Justice
Fragile Moralities and
Dangerous Sexualities: Two
Centuries of Semi-Penal
Institutionalisation
Alana Barton
Ashgate, 2005; pp 176; £45.00, hbk
ISBN 0–7546–3829–4
As someone who has spent the past 12 years conducting
research on approved premises, I was understandably
keen to review the book. Despite being in existence for over
a century, approved premises (known until recently as bail and probation hostels)
have rarely captured the attention of criminological researchers. I am therefore
always eager to read new research studies that add to existing knowledge on
approved premises.
Fragile Moralities and Dangerous Sexualities is a research monograph which
began life as a PhD thesis. It presents the findings of fieldwork in one woman’s
bail and probation hostel, referred to throughout the book by the pseudonym,
Vernon Lodge. The research design is clearly outlined, although for some inex-
plicable reason this description is hidden away in an appendix. A multi-method
approach was adopted which included participant observation over a period of
two years, qualitative interviews with 16 residents and nine staff members and
analysis of documents. The latter method was chosen after a curious search for
‘lost’ historical documents in the hostel’s attic led to the discovery of a collection
dating back to when the institution first opened as a reformatory in 1923 and
through to the 1970s.
The book has three main aims. First, it purports to fill a theoretical gap in the
feminist literature by analysing the development of semi-penal institutions for
women, ‘identifying themes of continuity and discontinuity between the nineteenth
century reformatory and the twentieth century hostel for female offenders’ (p. 5).
Second, it claims to analyse the social control and disciplining of ‘unruly’ and
‘deviant’ women, particular through the discourses of domesticity, respectability,
motherhood, sexuality and pathology; again noting whether contemporary prac-
tices resemble historical ones. Finally, it endeavours to analyse women’s strategies
of resistance and management when exposed to coercive social control.
Copyright © 2006 NAPO Vol 53(2): 178–187
DOI: 10.1177/0264550506063615
www.napo.org.uk
http://prb.sagepub.com
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