Shire Confirmation
| DOI | 10.1177/026455059103800322 |
| Author | Jennifer Wilding |
| Published date | 01 September 1991 |
| Date | 01 September 1991 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
159
Shire
Confirmation
Based
on
studies
in
Merseyside
and
In-
ner
London,
two
articles
in
Pf June
1991
indicated
that
women
were
more
likely
to
be
identified
as
drug
misusers
than
men
(’Challenging
Practice
of
Challenging
Women?
Female
Offen-
ding
and
Illicit
Drug
Use’
and
’Drug
Misuse:
Developing
a
Harm
Reduction
Strategy’).
Those
of
us
who
work
in
the
shire
counties
may
well
dismiss
these
fin-
dings
as
interesting
but
not
relevant
to
our
work.
However,
information
from
the
Norfolk
Probation
Service
indicates
that
this
may
be
an
issue
for
most
Pro-
bation
areas. A
survey
of
Norfolk
Pro-
bation’s
clients
carried
out
in
1990
revealed
that
whilst
women
were
on-
ly
16. ~ %
of
the
caseload
supervised
in
the
community,
they
accounted
for
2 %
of
the
drug
misusers.
Information
from
the
monitoring
of
social
inquiry
reports
also
confirms
the
over
association
of
drug
misuse
with
women
involved
with
the
criminal
justice
system.
Figures
for
July-December
1990
show
that
of
1968
people
on
whom
social
inquiry
reports
were
written,
13.5 %
of
them
were
women.
Of
those
charged
with
actual
drugs
offences,
1~ °r~
were
women.
However,
of
those
identified
as
misus-
ing
drugs,
21. ~ %
were
women
and
of
those
for
whom
drugs
were
a
factor
in
the
offence, 21.7%
were
women.
Thus
the
figures
for
Norfolk,
a
mainly
rural
county,
are
similar
to
those
for
Merseyside
and
Inner
Lon-
don.
This
indicates
that
the
factors
at
play
in
large
urban
conurbations,
whatever
they
may
be,
are
also
at
work
in
smaller
urban
and
rural
areas.
The
findings
cannot
be
attributed
to
the
way
the
criminal
justice
system
operates
in
a
large
city,
rather
they
con-
firm
that
the
linking
factor
may
be
the
way
that
women
are
perceived
and
treated
by
the
criminal
justice
system,
wherever
they
live.
Jennifer
Wilding
Research/Information
Officer,
Norfolk
Fair
Comparison
Is
it
fair
to
the
real
Russell
Webster
to
top
the
blurb
about
him
on
the
con-
tents
page
of
June’s
Probationjoumal
with
a
photo
of
Grant
from
Eastenders,
he
who
beats
up
publicans
and
smashes
through
walls?
Bob
Anderson
Probation
Officer,
Cinderford
Mr
Anderson
is
absolutely
right
to
point
out
this
mistake.
Our
apologies
to
Russell
Webster,
and
we
are
happy
to
supply
his
correct
photograph
herewith:
Editor
Placement
Rankles
Phil
Slater’s
article
’Adequate
To
The
Task’
(PJ June
1991)
in
which
he
ex-
plains
the
’portfolio’
route
to
CC~T~W’s
practice
teaching
award
caused
a
rankle
or
two
in
this
neck
of
the
woods.
The
Cornwall
Service
has
withdrawn
the
facility
of
student
placements
to
all
local
courses
because
Plymouth
Polytechnic’s
two
year
CQSW
Course
is
due
to
lose
its
proba-
tion
option
in
mid-1992.
To
quote
Phil
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