Book review: Penal Cultures and Female Desistance
| Author | Ares Batlle Manonelles |
| DOI | 10.1177/20662203211003390 |
| Published date | 01 April 2021 |
| Date | 01 April 2021 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
1003390EJP0010.1177/20662203211003390European Journal of ProbationBook reviews
2021
Book reviews
European Journal of Probation
2021, Vol. 13(1) 89 –93
Book reviews
© The Author(s) 2021
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https://doi.org/10.1177/20662203211003390
DOI: 10.1177/20662203211003390
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Linnéa Österman, Penal Cultures and Female Desistance. London; New York: Routledge, 2018;
226 pp.: ISBN: 9780367481995, €33 (pbk).
Reviewed by: Ares Batlle Manonelles, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain
Penal Cultures and Female Desistance presents a comprehensive cross-national research
study on women’s lived experiences of desistance in two different penal cultures, those
of Nordic Exceptionalism and of Anglophone Excess. Linnéa Österman’s doctoral
research is presented in this book and responds to two weaknesses in the field of desist-
ance. First, little attention is paid to studying gender in the desistance literature, with
women’s experiences being mostly ignored in empirical research. Second, there is a lack
of comparative research to explore how cultures and macro-contexts impact on desist-
ance processes.
Regarding the first point, the study focuses on the subjective experiences of female
ex-offenders. This approach, which puts women’s perceptions at the centre, as Österman
mentions, ‘is a key feminist endeavour within criminology’ (p. 4). Regarding the second
point, the interest of this comparative study also lies on the potential for ‘policy transfer’,
and European countries present relevant similarities and enough differences for that to be
of interest. To this end, the book aims to make a valuable contribution to the internation-
alization of criminological knowledge production (often too UK/US-centred) and to femi-
nist criminology and the growing understanding of gendered experiences of desistance.
The book is structured in eight chapters. In the introductory, Chapter 1, research goals
are identified and justified. A theoretical chapter (Chapter 2) contains the main literature
review and the explanation of key concepts, and a third chapter is devoted exclusively to
methodology. Four chapters (Chapters 4–7) then present the results of the research in
detail and a final chapter (Chapter 8) serves as the conclusion to the book.
To begin with, Chapter 2 covers the main issues and relevant literature for this
research, providing an overview of the Swedish and English criminal justice contexts
and of the topic of female desistance.
The author first offers a comparison of both countries, drawing from Melossi’s
understanding of penalty, therefore, stressing the importance of social structures and
processes and addressing how ‘different...
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