Reviews : Women, Crime and Poverty Pat Carlen Open University Press, 1988. £7.95 pbk, 163pp
| Author | Ruth Allan |
| Published date | 01 March 1989 |
| Date | 01 March 1989 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/026455058903600112 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
29
times
risk,
and
is
similar
to
our
work
with
clients,
but
that’s
another
story.....
PJ
Borland
SPO,
Rotherham
The
Electronic
Monitoring
of Offenders
Andrew
Wade
UEA Probation
Monographs,
1988.
£3.50 pbk.
Andrew
Wade’s
monograph
is
timely
and
brief.
It
gives
a
good
account
of
the
technologies:
electronic
monitoring
appears
to
be
the
answer
to
a
’control-
ler’s’
prayer,
which
may
explain
the
almost
Benthamite
evangelism
with
which
it
is
espoused
and
marketed.
He
poses
two
questions
for
Proba-
tion.
Yes,
tagging
is
wrong
in
principle;
and
no,
it
is
not
Probation
compatible.
He
asks
us
to
be
clear
about
our
opposi-
tion
to
tagging
when
we
have
accepted
more
controlling
roles
with
community
service
and
parole.
I
think
him
mis-
guided
when
he
suggests
that
the
provi-
sion
of
alternatives
to
custody
has
be-
come
our
dominating
rationale.
Rather,
we
are
in
business
to
demonstrate
that
society
has
less
need
to
use
imprison-
ment ;
few would
argue
against
some
form
of
confinement
for
the
murder-
ous,
rapacious
or
otherwise
dangerous
individual.
The
strength
of
our
argument
against
tagging
lies
in
the
personal
and
constructive
way
in
which
we
work
with
offenders.
It is
a
common
criticism
of
those
who
offend
that
they
treat
other
people
as
objects
of
their
own
gratification.
Tagging,
like
the
whole
legal
notion
of
deterrence,
treats
peo-
ple
as
objects
which
is
hardly
condu-
cive
to
assisting
them
to
perceive
their
victims
as
people
and
take
responsibil-
ity
for
the
harm
done
to
them.
Tagging
also
brings
prison
to
the
home.
Proba-
tion
officers
do
not
govern
prisons -
nor
do
they
mimic
some
American
col-
leagues
by
wearing
side-arms -
so
there
is
no
obvious
reason
why
they
should
govern
’home’ prisons.
Probation
is
on
stronger
ground
in
opposing
the
claim
that
electronic
monitoring
will
reduce
custody.
Already
Judges
in
some
American
States
reject
the
concept
as
not
puni-
tive
enough.
Here,
with
the
lesson
of
suspended
sentences
to
warn
us,
elec-
tronic
monitoring
is
likely
to
have
two
immediate
effects.
One
is
net
widening
-
Wade
quotes
an
ACOP
paper =
draw-
ing
in
a
new
group
for
whom
surveill-
ance
is
unnecessary
but
whose
cir-
cumstances
match
themselves
to
it.
The
second
is
discriminatory
with
peo-
ple
whose
impoverished
circumstances
do
not
lend
themselves
to
tagging
even
more
likely
to
end
up
in
custody.
Thanks
Andrew
Wade
for
a
thorough,
readable
and
well
argued
account.
Gordon
Read
Chief Probation
Officer,
Devon
Women,
Crime
and
Poverty
Pat
Carlen
Open
University Press, 1988.
£7.95
pbk,
163pp.
Pat
Carlen’s
account
of
the
criminal
careers
of
39
women
is
a
sophisticated
analysis
of
women’s
law-breaking
and
criminalization.
It is
based
on
the
oral
histories
of
the
39
women
and
their
comments
throughout
the
text
ring
true
in
a
harrowingly
depressing
way.
Pat
Carlen
shows
how
these
impoverished
and
marginalised
women
are
outside
conventional
class
and
gender
controls,
since
their
family
experiences
and
general
background
have
not
led
to
a
commitment
to
male-related
domestic-
ity.
At
the
same
time
they
are
unpre-
pared
to
accept
the
poor
circumstances
in
which
they
fmd
themselves.
Their
law-breaking
response
to
this
situation
leads
to
a
vicious
circle
of
criminaliza-
tion,
imprisonment,
and
further
outlaw-
ing
from
society.
Ms
Carlen
goes
on
to
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