`“Prove me the bam!”: Victimization and agency in the lives of young women who commit violent offences' — Practitioner response 1
| Date | 01 September 2008 |
| Published date | 01 September 2008 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0264550508095925 |
| Author | David Wood |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
‘“Prove me the bam!”: Victimization and
agency in the lives of young women who
commit violent offences’ – Practitioner
response 1
David Wood, Merseyside Probation Area
Abstract This article is a practitioner’s response to Susan Batchelor’s article ‘“Prove
me the bam!”: Victimization and agency in the lives of young women who commit
violent offences’ published in the December 2005 edition of Probation Journal.
Batchelor undertook a research study comprising in-depth oral-history interviews
with 21 women convicted of violent offences aged between 16 and 24 years who
were detained in HMPYOI Cornton Vale in Scotland, interviews with adults who
work with ‘such young women’ (p. 361) and an analysis of available documents
(such as relevant social work reports, prison narratives, programme records, etc).
The focus of Batchelor’s article was to explore the background and characteristics
of female offenders convicted of violent offences and to use this to develop a ‘what
works’ discourse on how to respond to such behaviour.
Keywords agency, practice context, victimization, violent offending, worker–client
relationship, young women
Introduction
In my work as a community-based Offender Manager I manage tier 3 and 4
(medium, high and very high serious risk of harm) offenders who have been
sentenced to supervision in the community. This requires ongoing assessment of
the risks posed by the individual offender and in particular those factors relating to
their criminal behaviour which may also be linked to their potential of committing
further offences or causing harm. Susan Batchelor’s article is therefore of particu-
lar interest to me in that it provides research into the criminogenic factors relating
to women who commit violent offences and offers some insights regarding the
283
Probation Journal
The Journal of Community and Criminal Justice
Copyright © 2008 NAPO Vol 55(3): 283–288
DOI: 10.1177/0264550508095925
www.napo.org.uk
http://prb.sagepub.com
Practitioner’s
response
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