Book review: Mark S Hamm and Ramon Spaaij, The Age of Lone Wolf Terrorism
| Author | Neil Shortland |
| Published date | 01 February 2019 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1362480618791591 |
| Date | 01 February 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
Book reviews 127
seek safety. In seeming contradiction, the relationships through which women gain capi-
tal are both resources for safety and sources of threat.
Owen, Wells, and Pollock also discuss threats that exist from correctional staff and the
power imbalances between them and the women. They found that, while physical and
sexual violence is minimal, potential threats from staff represent a “destabilizing undercur-
rent” (p. 138) to correctional life. Women experience an “asymmetry of respect” (p. 141),
in which they are expected to respect staff but receive little respect in return – for example,
staff fail to provide aid when needed or make belittling comments about women. Women
respond to this disrespect and risk of violence with strategies drawn from both their com-
munity and prison contexts – for example, challenge, cooperate with, or manipulate staff.
The book ends with a dilemma – if women who are marginalized and without capital
on the street make the choice to offend, does it make sense to incarcerate them in an envi-
ronment like their street lives? The authors contend it does not and propose a human rights
approach to incarceration that is “based on the inherent dignity and worth of the incarcer-
ated person” (p. 175). Drawing on specific United Nations human rights declarations and
rules, the authors recommend reducing the number of people who are incarcerated by
using community justice sanctions and changing the prison environment by committing
to human rights and prioritizing gender-responsive and trauma-informed practices. They
contend that this human rights approach would better assist women in building the capital
necessary to facilitate their success and survival within the community.
In Search of Safety does not answer all the questions related to the problem of wom-
en’s offending and incarceration. For example, the authors note that our understanding of
female offending intersects with socially constructed notions of woman-hood and the
social control of women. Yet to what degree does the pathways analysis enforce a new
identity and social control mechanism for women and what are the benefits and conse-
quences of such? The authors recommend that we can do better by women by reducing
the use of incarceration and bringing human rights to prison. I support these recommen-
dations yet question whether they go far enough. What is the role of social and structural
transformation to address the intersectional inequality experienced by women prior to
offending? How do we understand the relationship between social and criminal justice?
I find these questions challenging and worthy of further examination.
Overall, In Search of Safety: Confronting Inequality in Women’s Imprisonment is an
excellent resource on the pathways approach and analysis of women’s offending and
incarceration. It opens the door for continued dialogue on these topics while presenting
relevant and critical recommendations for a new approach to justice and incarceration.
Mark S Hamm and Ramon Spaaij, The Age of Lone Wolf Terrorism, Columbia University Press:
New York, 2017; 336 pp., 9 illustrations: 9780231181747, $35.00 (hbk)
Reviewed by: Neil Shortland, University of Massachusetts-Lowell, USA
Lone wolf terrorists are those who operate alone outside the command structure of a
formal terrorist organization. Famous examples of ‘lone wolves’ include Theodore
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