Suchergebnisse

The approach of HM Prison Service for England and Wales and the Scottish Prison Service to drug users in prison, focusing on the experiences of women drug users in particular - and looking at items such as:policies and guidelines, their implementation and effect the experiences of women drug users in prison in their own words the views of prison staff who need to 'care' for drug users whilst concentrating on security and control tensions inherent in an increasing prison population with a significant 'drug user' element the priorities and emphasis of current prison practice the 'medicalising', 'pathologising' and 'criminalizing' of women drug users, who are seen as 'sick', 'deviant', 'depraved' and 'degraded' the impact of prison regimes on drug users - and vice-versa the discretionary implementation of policies the stereotyping of drug users how the social control of women extends into the penal arena.

Government attempts to respond to drug-related crime have resulted in a significant increase in court-mandated treatment, where offenders are fast-tracked into comprehensive services under the supervision of the court. The efficacy of 'enforced treatment' has been recognized and forms the underpinning principles of such interventions. This article examines the structured and gender dimensions which are often overlooked when initiatives and services are developed to reduce or end drug use, and consequently drug-related offending. The differential experience of women, as offenders and drug users, can denote a distinct lack of social justice when initiatives fail to provide equitable access to resources or community disposals for women.

Strains on professional resources and complex experiences of isolation and despair have taken their toll on communities, adding to the challenges for social workers and social work as a profession. In a context of austerity and locational stress, communities are increasingly relied upon to enhance or, indeed, replace the need for state intervention. However, grass-roots and mutual aid collectives have the potential for both community support and resistance. Using original qualitative data, this article explores how some groups based in Scotland's most deprived locales provide collective and mutual aid, and, in doing so, attempt to address some of the challenges of modern life (such as overcoming addiction, isolation and mental anguish). Importantly, this article revives and develops Erich Fromm's discourse on the importance of 'love' and Marx's concept of 'spiritual emancipation' to explore the potential for transforming individual experiences into collective resistance.

Illegal drug use has been increasingly implicated in offending behaviour and can have adverse social consequences for the individuals who come to the attention of the criminal justice system. However, the consequences are particularly problematic for women, for whom the use of 'hard drugs' is considered highly inappropriate, if increasingly common. This paper will consider the ways in which women drug users are depicted as 'risky' women, and will highlight policy responses. It will examine the application of concepts of 'responsibilization' and consider how this is applied to women drug using offenders. The paper will examine the theoretical basis for the differential depiction of drug users on the basis of gender, and will critically analyse the consequences of this for women drug users throughout their contact with the criminal justice system and related service provisions.

The Prison Services of Scotland, England and Wales are required to hold in custody those individuals sentenced to a period of imprisonment by the courts. They are also required to 'look after them with humanity' and provide a standard of care which will meet this objective. This article, based on extensive primary research in five women's prisons in England and Scotland, examines the experiences of women prisoners and the impact of policy initiatives designed to respond to the ever‐growing problems presented by the presence and use of illicit drugs in prisons.

This article examines the response to the identification and support of unaccompanied children who have been trafficked into the UK. Locating the identification of victims of trafficking with the Home Office is problematic as their primary responsibility is not child protection. This approach is likely to prioritise immigration concerns that potentially exclude some children from the appropriate safeguarding support of local authority social work departments. In addition to the practice implications, the current responses are examined through a lens of neoliberalism, providing a unique critique of the present system. The article concludes by proposing an alternative model of identification and support that completely bypasses the Home Office. It proposes that identification of unaccompanied children who have been trafficked is located within a social work-led child protection framework. This would adhere to international obligations to child victims of human trafficking, and prioritise a human rights-based approach.

Abstract'Home' invokes ambiguous meanings for policy, practice and academia. This article explores the complexities of 'home' in relation to the experiences of two groups of young people in transitory circumstances (UK children who go missing from the family home or alternative care; and young people who have been separated from their home and families as refugees). We consider how the meaning given to 'home', despite its inherent ambiguity, functions as a central concept around which the vulnerability and credibility of children and young people are constructed. By problematising the universalised concept of home and the notion of 'family' that it implies, this article contributes to criminology and refugee studies by exploring State responses to 'youth journeys' (within and to the UK) through an idealised lens of 'home'. This normative view, we suggest, forms the basis for determining State responses, with significant consequences for these young people.

AbstractMentoring has become increasingly popular in recent years in the criminal justice system, presented across the UK and internationally as a service that can address the specific 'needs' of women. This article draws on original qualitative research with mentors and mentees to explore their experiences and to establish the aims and processes of mentoring. The rhetoric of mentoring offered by mentors and staff suggested that mentoring was based on an individualistic approach that contained responsibilising strategies. In practice, however, mentors were helping women to resolve issues related to the welfare system and other services outwith the criminal justice system. If positive outcomes of mentoring are viewed by policymakers to be the result of an individualistic approach aimed at fostering 'prosocial' interventions, rather than the result of attempts to mitigate wider structural failures then this takes responsibility away from the State and distracts from the deeper effects of criminalising processes.

The prison has often been the focus for concerns about human rights violations, and campaigns aimed at achieving social justice, for those with an interest in the criminalisation of women. To reduce the number of women imprisoned, a range of policy initiatives have been developed to increase the use of community-based responses to women in conflict with the law. These initiatives have tended to operate alongside reforms to the prison estate and are often defined as 'community punishment', 'community sanctions' and 'alternatives to imprisonment'. This book challenges the contention th

Media and political representations of asylum seekers and refugees have been infused with language denoting images of 'danger', 'criminality' and 'risk'. Despite attempts to provide for those seeking asylum in the UK, those in need have frequently been stigmatized and criminalized. Policies and practices, intended to respond to those fleeing economic hardship or political persecution, have been guided by such depictions. This article illustrates the use of detention as a mechanism for purportedly securing the containment and removal of 'illegals'. While the use of detention may be seen as an attempt to deter 'undeserving' asylum seekers from seeking sanctuary in the UK, this article argues that this practice is, in effect, a fundamentally punitive method to assuage public fears concerning supposed 'risk' and potential dangers to 'security'.