Review by Choice Review
Criminologists studying corrections have long acknowledged that women inmates have special needs that require programmatic variations from the typical corrections designed for men. This understanding has only slowly affected correctional policy and practice, but even then has often resulted in programs supporting stereotypes of women as mothers and caregivers and/or in intensive supervision programs designed more to protect the public than to aid the integration of women inmates back into the daily social life of the community. Using a qualitative approach, Morash (Michigan State Univ.) compares two county probation/parole programs and their treatment of women. One program uses a traditional approach where men and women are treated the same and clients are periodically contacted and lightly supervised. The second, a gender-responsive program, requires more personal involvement in the women's lives. While leading to more short periods of reinstitutionalization, according to Morash this latter program is more successful in helping women regain their footing in community life. A very well-written but highly technical and detailed research monograph that will mainly be of interest to those criminology scholars studying what Morash calls "gender-responsive probation and parole." Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students/faculty/professionals. G. C. Leavitt Idaho State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
