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Critical Criminological Perspectives
Desisting Sisters
Gender, Power and Desistance in the
Criminal (In)Justice System
Úna Barr
Series Editors
Reece Walters
Faculty of Law
Queensland University of Technology
Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Deborah H. Drake
Social Policy & Criminology Department
The Open University
Milton Keynes, UK
The Palgrave Critical Criminological Perspectives book series aims to
showcase the importance of critical criminological thinking when exam-
ining problems of crime, social harm and criminal and social justice.
Critical perspectives have been instrumental in creating new research
agendas and areas of criminological interest. By challenging state defined
concepts of crime and rejecting positive analyses of criminality, critical
criminological approaches continually push the boundaries and scope of
criminology, creating new areas of focus and developing new ways of
thinking about, and responding to, issues of social concern at local,
national and global levels. Recent years have witnessed a flourishing of
critical criminological narratives and this series seeks to capture the origi-
nal and innovative ways that these discourses are engaging with contem-
porary issues of crime and justice.
More information about this series at

http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14932
Úna Barr
Desisting Sisters
Gender, Power and Desistance in the
Criminal (In)Justice System
Úna Barr
School of Humanities and Social Science
Liverpool John Moores University
Liverpool, UK

ISBN 978-3-030-14275-9 ISBN 978-3-030-14276-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14276-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019934467
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019

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This thesis is dedicated to the memory of two women who left us too soon—
the woman known as ‘Sue’ in this book, and my beautiful cousin and friend
Fiona Kelly, who is so missed.
Acknowledgements
There are many people and organisations to thank for the opportunity to
write the original thesis, allowing me to think that I could have the audac-
ity to publish it as a book, and supporting me to get there in the end.
Firstly, of course, huge thanks go to Seán and Paula Barr. Thank you for
always encouraging me to do what I want to do and to try to make a dif-
ference while doing it. Special thanks to my da for letting me barrow
‘medicalising the marginalised’. To my brother, Dermot. Thanks for
always being available to chat through any issues I had and offering great
insights. To Éimear, my real-life sister and hero, Seánna, Eilís and Rossa
O’Cóinn. To Janet Raven-Martin and Ian Martin and, of course, and
always, to Tom. You are the best. Thank you also to a person who we have
yet to meet, but who has encouraged me to get the book finished before
their arrival. We love you so much already.
To everyone who supported me in my PhD at the University of Central
Lancashire (UCLan) and onwards, particularly my good friend Laura
Kelly and my supervision team: Maria Sapouna, Megan Todd and, in
particular, Martin O’Brien. To Helen Codd and Fergus McNeill for
examining my thesis and offering insightful guidance.
Colleagues at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) have been
overwhelmingly kind and supportive, in particular the ‘Shut Up and
Write’ crew and Lindsey Metcalf for all her organisational skills and
encouragement, former LJMU colleague Adam Westall, and my
vii
viii Acknowledgements
e ver-supportive boss, Janet Jamieson. Particular and special thanks go to

Joe Sim, without whom this book would never have been either submit-
ted to publishers or finished. Thank you for all your guidance and encour-
agement on my draft chapters. It is such a privileged position to work
with people you see as your academic heroes, and I am so lucky to work
with so many of mine. Kym Atkinson, Katie Tucker, Helen Monk and
the Centre for Crime Criminalisation and Social Exclusion deserve spe-
cial thanks. Thanks to all the students in LJMU who continue to teach
me. In particular, conversations with Natalie Christian have been invalu-
able. Thanks to John Moore for asking a question which I thought about
for a year after in Lesbos, and to all at the European Group for the Study
of Deviance and Social Control.
To the services known in this book as the Northshire Women Centres
and the Housing for Northshire project. Special thanks to the women
referred to as Rebecca, Christine, Mary and Jenny.
Thank you to everyone at Palgrave Macmillan, especially Liam Inscoe-
Jones and Josie Taylor. Thanks to Critical Criminological Perspectives
and Deborah Drake in particular for the encouragement.
Most of all, I’d like to thank all the women who gave up their time to
speak to me about their lives, something which was not always easy. I can
only hope I have done justice to your stories. The resilience you have
shown in the face of injustice will be a constant source of inspiration.
Contents
1 Defining Desistance 1
2 Explaining Desistance: Traditional Perspectives 25
3 A Case of Growing Up? A Feminist Critique of

Maturational Theory 55
4 ‘A Good Job and the Love of a Good Woman’: A Feminist

Critique of Social Bonds Theory 71
5 All in the Head? A Feminist Critique of Subjective Theory113
6 (In)Justice Systems157
7 Making the Invisible Visible189
ix
x Contents
8 Conclusion213
Appendix: Methodology231
Bibliography247
Index265
1
Defining Desistance
Desisting Sisters is the culmination of my doctoral research. The student-

ship through which the fees for my thesis were funded originally bore the
title: Young Offenders on the Road to Desistance. It was not, initially,
intended as an exploration of the gendered desistance journey. However,
upon exploring the desistance literature, it quickly became apparent that
women’s experiences were largely side-lined, marginalised and incorpo-
rated within the male-focused explorations of desistance. For example,
one of the first texts I considered was Farrall and Calverley’s 2006
Understanding Desistance from Crime: Theoretical directions in resettlement
and rehabilitation. This book dedicates 3 pages of 209 to women. Two of
these are dedicated to the limitations of the study. A book published in
2013 by Sam King, Desistance Transitions and the Impact of Probation,
contains only a single short paragraph about women. As of late, there
have been moves to consider female desistance experiences (Rodermond
et al. 2016; Gomm 2016; Hart 2017). Yet women’s voices within desis-
tance literature are still marginalised, particularly in England. Therefore,
this book examines the desistance experiences of a small group of
Northshire-based women. Through a re-analysis of traditional desistance
perspectives, the book contends that a ‘critical desistance’ (Hart 2017)
© The Author(s) 2019 1

Ú. Barr, Desisting Sisters, Critical Criminological Perspectives,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14276-6_1
2 Ú. Barr
must ground desistance research and practice within the structural condi-
tions in which it does or does not occur. It must have at its base an abo-
litionist outlook and an awareness of the intersectionality of both
criminalisation and desistance, as well as the harmful impact of the
Criminal Justice System (CJS). This chapter provides an introduction to
the book by setting out definitional issues and plotting the emergence of
desistance as a separate theoretical concern within criminology. An expla-
nation will be offered for the apparent gender blindness (Gelsthorpe and
Morris 1988) of desistance research. It will be argued that this blindness
is a consequence of a wider insidious gender blindness of patriarchal
criminological research. An outline of the book’s chapters, including
some limitations of this research, follows.
Defining Desistance
Crime and deviance involve normative behaviours, and most criminal-
ised individuals do eventually stop offending, arguably undergoing desis-
tance (Barry 2006). Establishing a definition of desistance is necessary
before any consideration of how desistance ‘works’ can be established.
However, the exact meaning of desistance, has been much contested.
Weaver and McNeill (2010) note that ‘most criminologists have associ-
ated desistance with both ceasing and refraining from offending’ (p. 37).
It is not assumed that desistance is a simple process which follows a
straight and definite line. A consistent, but not unchallenged (e.g., see
Sampson and Laub 1993 or Giordano et al. 2002), finding in the desis-
tance literature is that there is no specific ‘turning point’ in time where
former law breakers become ‘desisters’ (Maruna 2001; Bottoms and
Shapland 2011). On the contrary, desistance has been likened to a zigzag
path (Glaser 1964). Healy (2012) describes desistance as the area ‘betwixt
and between’ crime. Leibrich (1993) meanwhile refers to the ‘curved’
pathway of desistance. Matza’s (1964) theory of ‘drift’ suggests that peo-
ple tend to move between conventional and delinquent behaviour
throughout the life course and especially in their younger years. Most
desistance authors now recognise desistance as a process or a path rather
than a specific event. These definitions suggest that a person may go
Defining Desistance 3
through many periods of desistance throughout the life course, making it

difficult to categorise individuals in terms of ‘desisters’ and ‘persisters’.
Maruna and Farrall (2004) have differentiated between ‘primary’ and
‘secondary’ desistance. ‘Primary’ desistance can be taken to mean any lull
or crime-free period in the course of a criminal career. The Stockholm
Life Course Project findings (Carlsson 2012) have suggested that there
are two forms of ‘intermittency’ in criminal careers, or two forms of pri-
mary desistance. The first is when an offender experiences breaks or
pauses in offending for various reasons but which are not related to any
long-term commitment to change, whilst the second can be understood
as attempts to desist where attempts to change are present but for various
reasons are not realised (Carlsson 2012). These may be people who stop
deviant or addictive behaviour but for various reasons return to it at a
later date. As the author notes, ‘Intermittent offending is the criminal
career, because the great majority of offenders, if not all, tend to follow a
zigzag path between onset and desistance’ (2012: 931). ‘Secondary’ desis-
tance, on the other hand, can be described as ‘measureable changes at the
level of personal identity or the “me” of the individual’ (Maruna et al.
2009: 34). Essentially, secondary desistance involves the casting off of the
former ‘offender’ identity and a move towards generative concerns consis-
tent with a new identity. It can also be known as ‘true’ or ‘complete’
desistance. It is worth noting that both these forms of desistance can
apply to criminalised people previously considered as persistent or serious
offenders at different points in the life cycle.
More recently, the dual nature of desistance has been called into ques-
tion. Healy and O’Donnell, in their 2006 study of Irish male probation-
ers found little evidence of agency or generative concerns consistent with
notions of secondary desistance in the narratives they collected. Vaughan
(2007) has introduced a tertiary and final stage of desistance which sug-
gests a commitment to a new identity so powerful that it is incompatible
with any former criminal identity. Rumgay (2004) has meanwhile
asserted that desistance is better described as a process of maintenance
which tends not to emanate from a single event or decision ‘but as a pro-
cess in which skills and advantages accumulate over time, mutually rein-
forcing each other and progressively the offender’s capacity to avoid
recidivism’ (p. 413). This process of maintenance is pertinent for the cur-
4 Ú. Barr
rent research. As the following chapters will show, desistance for the
research participants involved constant maintenance. Kelly-Marie’s nar-
rative, for example, highlighted this process of accumulation of skills and
advantages over time. Desistance can also mean the collection of brico-
lage as a method of survival. As will be seen in the following chapters,
desistance for the women studied herein often meant survival and resis-
tance to the structural conditions of their criminalisation. In contrast,
traditional desistance theories have linked the cessation of crime with
factors such as maturity, adult social bonds, agency, identity and hope
(Bottoms et al. 2004). The structural conditions of both criminalisation
and desistance are notable for their absence amongst traditional (male-
focused) desistance theories. This book aims to address this fissure and
re-examine these traditional perspectives through the lens of criminalised
women’s experiences.
The study of desistance has evolved from its beginnings as an after-
thought of developmental, life-course and criminal career research into a
substantial body of literature in its own right. Life-course studies can be
traced back to 1937 in the form of Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck’s pio-
neering, in-depth work which was eventually published as Unravelling
Juvenile Delinquency (1950), which involved the study of 500 juvenile
delinquents in an effort to untangle the causes of delinquent behaviour.
The Gluecks linked desistance with the ageing process. During this time
however, criminology tended to be concerned with the onset rather than
the diminishment of criminal behaviour. For example, Gove (1985: 118),
in his study of six of the most influential theories of deviance: labelling
theory, conflict theory, differential association theory, control theory,
anomie theory and functional theory, concluded that ‘all of these theo-
retical perspectives either explicitly or implicitly suggest that deviant
behaviour is an amplifying process that leads to further and more serious
deviance’ (p. 118).
A more formal interest in desistance appeared in the 1970s and 80s,
influenced by the influx of longitudinal studies which appeared in the
1960s and the emergence in these groups of cohorts of those whose
offending patterns began to slow down (see, e.g., Meisenhelder 1977).
Yet at the same time the ‘Nothing Works’ discourse was promoting a
mood of despondency over probation and offending patterns in general.
The 1980s saw a more positive mood with the move to the ‘What Works’
period of community interventions. However, this period reflected few
advancements in opening the ‘black box’ of ‘why’ and ‘how’ (re)integra-
tion (following prison) and (re)settlement worked (Maruna and Farrall
2004). The 1990s saw the re-emergence of sociological and developmen-
tal interests in both the causes and continuation (or otherwise) of offend-
ing behaviour including explanations for the age-crime curve (Moffitt
1993; Sampson and Laub 1993). Sampson and Laub have been particu-
larly influential in their linking of desistance with turning points such as
employment and marriage. Developmental theorists such as Terrie Moffitt
(1993) suggested that a dual taxonomy can explain the sharp escalation of
the age-crime curve during adolescence. Moffitt proposed that there are
two types of offenders: life-course persistent offenders who begin their
antisocial behaviour at a young age and continue to offend over their lives
and adolescence-limited offenders (the vast majority of offenders) who are
involved in criminal behaviour only during their adolescent years. This,
developmental theorists have argued, can explain the shape of the age-crime
curve which tends to peak significantly during adolescence. However, as
Bottoms and Shapland (2011) note, even for the recidivist, offending
behaviours tend to decline sharply between the ages of 20 and 30.
Up until the end of the twentieth century, criminal career studies had
tended to focus on persistence. At the time, Neal Shover remarked, ‘[F]or
the most part, the desistance literature has been approached inferentially’
(1996: 124). More recently, desistance theories have begun to emerge as
a topic in their own right rather than an adjunct to life-course studies.
This has been coupled with a move towards a focus on the subjective
experiences of the offender themselves, with an emphasis on the indi-
vidual as an actor and narrative, life-course interviews as the research tool
through which desistance is studied (Leibrich 1993; Maruna 2001;
Farrall and Bowling 1999). From here, we have seen a development of
cessation of offending studies to include studies on desistance and diver-
sity, for example in terms of gender or ethnicity (Rumgay 2004; Calverley
2013; Rodermond et al. 2016) and how these identities can affect the
desistance process. Chapter 2 concentrates on these various explanations
for the process of desistance. First however, we must consider why desis-
tance theories and practice have neglected the ‘woman question’.
6 Ú. Barr
esistance and the (Absence of) the ‘Woman

D
Question’
Feminist criminologists (Smart 1977; Heidensohn 1985; Chadwick
and Little 1987; Gelsthorpe and Morris 1988; Stanko 1998;
Heidensohn 2004 amongst many others) would argue that the absence
of the woman question in this relatively new criminological theory is
simply a continuation of women’s absence in criminological research
more generally. Scraton (1990, 18) noted that young women tend to
have ‘occasional walk on parts’ in these kinds of studies and this
skimming over of gendered realities should be addressed. Certainly
women occupy a marginal position within the CJS in the UK. In
2015, women represented 5% of the total prison population and 17%
of the 125,934 offenders under supervision in the community as a
result of community and suspended sentence orders (Ministry of
Justice 2016). By locating women’s desistance as parallel to men’s,
criminology replicates the substantive inequalities which often result
in women entering the CJS in the first place, in addition to the sub-
stantive inequalities which they then face in a patriarchal system. The
structural conditions of female criminalisation; patriarchy and neolib-
eralism, as well as racism and heteronormativity, are conditions which
contextualise women’s criminalisation and desistance. Whilst desis-
tance theory has largely been a progressive light within criminology by
turning the central criminological question (why do some people
‘commit’ ‘crime’?) on its’ head, it has mostly (with a few exceptions)
neglected its sisters. Crucially, even those studies which consider
female desistance fail to contest the inequalities evident in the crimi-
nalisation and therefore desistance experiences of these women.
Desisting Sisters argues that the male desistance paradigm is unfit for
women. The experience of desistance can mean challenging gender
norms, just as women’s deviance often does. Desistance contests neo-
liberal ideals. Desistance theories which do not account for difference
nor for structural inequalities reinforce the inequalities and repressions
which difference, including gendered difference, creates.
Aims of Desisting Sisters

As has been seen, desistance theory has attempted to explain the process
by which individuals come to live life free from criminality and may
mean any crime-free gap in a criminal career. Yet as has also been noted,
desistance theories are broadly constructed from the hegemonic white,
heterosexual, male experience; female voices tend to get side-lined or not
discussed at all (Rumgay 2004). Indeed this suppression of female voice
is nothing new in criminological research. Whilst some studies have
included the view of desistance from the female point of view (Jamieson
et al. 1999; Giordano et al. 2002; Rumgay 2004; Barry 2006) the fact
that most of the studies are over a decade old is concerning. Recent moves
to address this gap have been largely considered outside England
(Rodermond et al. 2016). Other than Rumgay’s (2004) study, Hart’s
(2017) work regarding women leaving prison, and Österman (2018)
comparative study, modern research on female desistance has taken place
outside the England and Wales CJS—for example, both Barry’s (2006)
and Jamieson et al.’s (1999) studies were based in Scotland. The current
changes in probation provision, including the recent part-privatisation of
probation under the Transforming Rehabilitation agenda (see Chap. 6), sug-
gest that now is a critical time for desistance research.
Desisting Sisters contests the male-dominated narrative by placing
females in conflict with the law as protagonists in the desistance para-
digm. The choice to revisit traditional desistance perspectives, problem-
atic though they often are, through the eyes of criminalised women, is
intentional. In her revisit of Women, Crime and Criminology (1977),
Carol Smart refers to Paul Rock’s (1977) critique of the book’s analysis of
what he sees as redundant criminological theory through a feminist per-
spective, ‘poring over that which does not deserve detailed scholarly
attention’ (p. 394, quoted in Smart 2016: 62). Smart (2016) contends
that this was a necessary element in developing a feminist criminology.
Forty years on, this continues to be the case for feminist theorists; there
is a need to revisit problematic, masculinist theories and concepts through
intersectional feminist lenses. Yet this is useful for two reasons. First,
these problematic arguments (around maturation, social bonds and cog-
8 Ú. Barr
nitive changes, for example) continue to be influential in both (desis-

tance) theory and practice. The problems with these theoretical
perspectives must therefore be located and critiqued. Yet it is not enough
to simply critique problematic theory by viewing it through female eyes.
Secondly, therefore, revisiting these theories through the eyes of criminal-
ised women helps shed light on what is missing in desistance theory,
namely, a structural paradigm which supports a ‘woman-wise penology’
(Carlen 1990: 109). The imposition of patriarchal and neoliberal concep-
tions of desistance in the lives of criminalised women will become clear
in the following chapters. Often their narratives act as rejection of these
conceptions. This book aims to enable a discussion around alternative
desistance theory and praxis.
Desistance Contexts
Why do I wake up every morning to it all? You can’t shake it off can you?
(Anna, age 36)
The following sections set out the context of Desisting Sisters. The place
names in Desisting Sisters have been (relatively unimaginatively) ano-
nymised. Firstly, the overall setting of Northshire will be examined
through brief overviews of the social and economic environment of the
areas where the observation research and interviews took place, during
the time of the research. A brief synopsis of the contexts of Southton,
Easton, Weston,1 Central Town and Northton between February 2014
and August 2015 will be provided. These are the Northshire areas where
the women were living, working, raising children, attending probation
appointments and generally living their lives. The link between place,
community, citizenship and desistance has been well explored in the lit-
erature (Farrall et al. 2011; Calverley 2013) and it is important to locate
the sites of the women’s daily joys and struggles. Subsequently, the two
community justice projects, Northshire Women’s Centres (WCs) and the
Housing for Northshire (HfN) Project, which formed the backdrop for this
research will be discussed. In order to consider the desistance narratives

of these particular women, within this particular area, I conducted a
year’s observation at the Northshire WCs and carried out life-course
interviews with women affected by the CJS who were undertaking speci-
fied activity requirements in the WCs, as well as women who were living
in the HfN Project following a prison sentence (see the Appendix). An
overview is provided here, whilst Chap. 6 provides analysis of these proj-
ects and their link with desistance-promotion (see also Barr 2018).
Northshire
In 2015, the usual resident figure for broader Northshire was just under
1.5 million, an increase of 0.2% on 2014 (Northshire.gov.uk).2
Economically, the rate of growth of the Northshire economy lagged
behind the national rate of change. Median income in 2014/15 varied
in local authority areas between £17,500 (the lowest median income in
the UK) to £22,200 (below the UK average at the time of £22,400). As a
whole, Northshire is an economically deprived area. Average (median)
gross weekly earnings were noticeably below the average in Britain. Life
expectancy for both men and women were lower than the England aver-
age (Public Health England 2014). In some of the Northshire local
authorities, male and female life expectancy at birth rates were amongst
the worst in England and Wales. In 2015, one in five children in
Northshire were living in poverty. In 2016, 7 of the 14 local authority
areas within Northshire ranked in the top 50 most deprived areas in
England. Yet Northshire is also an area of gross economic inequality.
Whilst the county is home to a number of universities, the overall educa-
tional outturn suggested that Northshire needs to increase the proportion
of its residents qualified to National Vocational Qualification (NVQ)
level 4 in order to be on a par with the national average. There were pock-
ets of severe deprivation including a high proportion of ‘hidden’ and
long-term unemployed with low levels of basic skills (Northshire.gov.uk).
Northshire’s population is largely white (90%); the black and minority
ethnic group make up 10% of the population, the majority of which
were Asian/Asian British (2011 Census).
10 Ú. Barr
Southton
Southton, where the Tulip Centre was based, experienced population

growth of almost 7% between the 2001 and 2011 census, a percentage
point under the national average. Its central population is approximately
35,000 with approximately 113,000 in the greater Southton area (Mid
2015 Estimate, ONS). Overall, deprivation was lower than the England
average in Southton; about 14% of children lived in poverty, according
to Public Health England (2014). In the case of the five Northshire areas
studied for this project, Southton could be described as the least eco-
nomically disadvantaged as measured by the 2015 English Indices of
Multiple Deprivation (ONS 2015). At the time of research, there were
lower levels of unemployment and working age benefit claimants than
the rest of England. Nonetheless, gender inequality was evident, with life
expectancy for women a year lower than the English average at 82 years,
whilst for men the life expectancy was consistent with the English average
at 79 years (Public Health England 2014). In the 2011 census, 97% of
those living in Southton identified as white, with 2% identifying as
Asian/ Asian British and 1% mixed/multiple ethnic groups.
Easton
Easton was home to the Rose Centre and also the home of the Housing
for Northshire Project. The mid-year ONS population estimate for 2015
was approximately 87,000 usual residents. Easton was the 17th most
deprived local authority area in England in 2015 according to the Office
of National Statistics (2015). Easton had some of the lowest property
prices in England (Northshire.gov.uk). A former mining town, Easton
was hit badly by the pit closure of 1981. However, it has since been the
site of multiple high-profile regeneration schemes which have resulted in
high end manufacturing remaining strong in the town. Nonetheless,
according to Public Health England (2014), the health of people in
Easton was generally worse than the England average. Deprivation was
higher than average and about 27% of children in Easton were living in
poverty in 2011. Unemployment rates and claimant count of Jobseekers
Allowance were higher than average in England.3 Life expectancy for

both men and women were also lower than the England average at 76
and 81, respectively. Drug misuse, alcohol-related hospital stays and
teenage pregnancy rates were amongst the highest levels in England, and
levels of General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) attainment
and breastfeeding rates were lower than the English average according to
the 2014 Public Health England report. In the 2011 census, 87% of
Easton’s population identified as white, with 11% identifying as Asian/
Asian British and 1% as mixed/multiple ethnic groups.
Central Town
Central Town, where the Daisy Centre was based, was one of the only
Northshire areas to see an increase in population between the 2001 and
2011 Census (along with Southton). In this period, there had been an
increase of over 10,000 people and the 2011 population numbered
approximately 147,000 in the Greater Central Town area. Central Town
faced a number of social and economic challenges both historically and
more recently. Much like Southton, Central Town was an area of con-
trasts with inequality evident, whilst the suburbs contain some of the
wealthiest areas in Northshire. Deprivation nonetheless was higher than
average and about 25% of children lived in poverty at the time of research.
In the 2015 indices of multiple deprivation, Central Town was ranked as
the 24th most deprived area in England and Wales. Total unemployment
rates and the number of working age people were well above the national
average. Like Easton, the health of people in Central Town was generally
worse than the England average. Life expectancy for both men and
women was lower than the England average at 77 and 81, respectively.
Drug misuse and alcohol-related hospital stays were higher than the
English average according to Public Health England (2014). There was
also a high rate of suicide within the area. Compared with other areas in
this project, Central Town had a relatively lower number of respondents
to the 2011 Census identifying as white (69%); 28% of respondents
identified as Asian/Asian British and 1% identified as multiple/mixed
ethnic groups.
12 Ú. Barr
Northton
Northton, where the Daffodil Centre was based, was one of the smallest
areas studied with a 2011 population of 35,000. Northton is a former
centre of the cotton and textile machinery industries. Northton is part of
a larger district, Hilldale, where there has been a deteriorating economic
profile over the years. Hilldale had an approximate population of 80,000 in
the 2015 mid-year population estimate. The total proportion of Jobseekers
Allowance claimants at the time of research was above both the England
and Northshire averages. There was distinction in Hilldale as a place to
work and a place to live; average earnings were low in 2015 when mea-
sured by place of residence, but local employment strength meant that
earnings were comparatively high when measured by place of work, indi-
cating that there was a draw to Northton and surrounding areas by those
living outside the area. Hilldale had a similar ethnic profile to Easton with
88% of Hilldale’s population identifying as white, 11% as Asian/Asian
British and 1% as mixed/multiple ethnic groups in the 2011 census.
Weston
In Weston, where the Iris Centre was based, the 2015 mid-year popula-
tion estimate was approximately 140,000. The population was biased
towards people of retirement age. Weston had the fourth largest popula-
tion density outside Greater London in England and Wales. In 2015, the
English indices of multiple deprivation named Weston as the most
deprived local authority in the county, and the 4th most deprived in the
country. Around one in three children lived in poverty in Weston at the
time. The seasonal nature of tourism in Weston had meant that there
were high unemployment rates in the winter months. Even at the height
of the tourism season the unemployment rate in Weston was usually well
above the county and national averages. Income level was the lowest in
Northshire in 2014. The percentage of pupils achieving five or more
A*–C grades at GCSE or equivalent including English and Maths in
2012/13 was 46% in Weston, below the Northshire average of 60%. The
health of people in Weston was generally worse than the England average,
with life expectancy for men and women at 74 and 80 respectively. The
rate of alcohol-related hospital stays was much higher than the England
average as was the rate of self-harm hospital stays, smoking-related deaths,
excess weight and smoking rates according to Public Health England
(2014). In 2011, 97% of Weston’s population identified as white, 2% as
Asian/Asian British and 1% as mixed/multiple ethnic groups.
Overall, Northshire was, and continues to be, a place of deprivation
relative to the rest of England and Wales. Within Northshire however
there were pockets of affluence and extreme deprivation, both within the
county generally and within the smaller areas researched. Inequality has
been linked with both high rates of crime and punitive justice policies
(Pickett and Wilkinson 2009; Dorling 2015). It is argued that these high
rates of inequality created by neoliberal economic policy do not provide
a fertile desistance backdrop. To explore the contexts of the Northshire
women’s desistance experiences, it is necessary to consider the formal sites
of desistance-promotion, which the next section does by providing a
descriptive account of the provision within the WCs and HfN Projects.
Formal Desistance Settings

The Women’s Centres
During the time of my observations at the Women’s Centres (WCs) from

2014 to 2015, the WCs provided a ‘one-stop shop’ for women entering
the CJS as part of the Northshire Women’s Specified Activity require-
ment (NWSAR). They provided these services by way of a contract won
through Northshire Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC). Mary,
a staff member at the Women’s Centre, provided a useful overview of the
services available for these women:
We don’t say we’re specialists in everything, we’re not specialists in domestic

abuse, drug services etc. But we do provide counselling and one to one sup-
port and assist with them [criminalised women] accessing that. So under
that umbrella where you say ‘one stop shop’ kind of thing, you might get a
woman who has an alcohol problem but doesn’t quite feel ready… it’s like,
14 Ú. Barr
what do you address first? And it might be that you address some of the
issues, and then if they’re ready to go into alcohol treatment and then for
that afterwards. (Mary, Criminal Justice Project Manager, Women’s Centres)
Women were referred from the police, courts, probation and other parts
of the CJS. All the women interviewed in this research were referred by the
courts as part of their sentences under the NWSAR. The women spent ten
weeks attending weekly two-hour sessions at the various centres, with the
first two weeks taken up by a one-on-one induction, followed by eight
weeks of group work sessions and a final conclusion session on the last
week. At the time of my observations, the topics offered in the group work
sessions were substance misuse awareness, health and well-being, housing
and money management, community and citizenship, employment train-
ing and education, thinking and behaviour, victim awareness, and family
and relationships. As can be seen, these follow many of the similar themes
found within the desistance literature. For example, the themes covered by
McIvor et al. (2004) in their study of youth offending and desistance in
Scotland were education, employment, use of leisure and lifestyle, drug and
alcohol use, offending, relationships with family, friends and partners,
neighbourhood, community and society, values and beliefs, victimisation,
identity, and aspirations for the future. It must be noted however that, in
2015, the NWSAR was undergoing change, including condensing the
eight sessions into six and giving more sway to using the sessions as intro-
ductions to the ‘add on support’ that women may need. In the introductory
one-on-one sessions, women were given information about the ‘one stop
shop’ project and asked to sign a contract relating to their behaviour at
group sessions including discussing their offences, taking part in sessions
and respecting others. In reality, the women were not forced to reveal their
offences at any time during the groups I attended. Groups were as big as ten
people (including staff) or as small as a one-on-one session.
The Housing for Northshire Project
Rebecca Brown’s Housing for Northshire Project was opened in September

2014. Rebecca described the project as a ‘supportive, abstinence-based
housing project’, divided into services for women and services for men.
Rebecca started the project as a service for women but, with help from
her partner Paul, developed a parallel service for men:
So we offer a shared accommodation within community housing so that

could be 2, 3, 4-bedroomed units. And for people of no fixed abode. So it
is primarily people from prison … We’re coming from a community stand-
point, and we’re about community regeneration, rather than it being a
project for people from prison, which is why the CJS is not mentioned in
any of the project vitals. So whilst primarily it is women from the CJS, and
men from the CJS, it’s not something that is effectively designed towards
that. (Rebecca, Project Manager, Housing for Northshire)
Rebecca described the project as having a ‘peer-led, co-operative struc-

ture’. Women and men from the CJS were referred to the project from
police, prison and various probation services, whilst non-criminal justice
referrals were often self-referrals. Whilst the focus was on housing,
Rebecca and Paul also referred women and men into counselling,
domestic violence services, health services, employment and training and
so on. Rebecca’s office had an open door policy and she herself was avail-
able to be contacted at any time. The houses were not set up as perma-
nent accommodation for the women and men but as a ‘stop gap’, with a
view to enabling people to become ‘responsible functioning members of
society, with a view to getting back to work’ (Rebecca). Interestingly, in
the early days of the project, Rebecca was approached by Christine Smith,
CEO of the WCs, who asked her to provide the project under the
Women’s Centre premises. Whilst initially positive about the idea,
Rebecca decided she did not want to be employed by the Centres, prefer-
ring to offer support under her own service and focus on housing.
Participant Profiles
Neither offending, nor desistance, are carried out in a vacuum. To under-
stand the desistance process it is important to understand the context-
specific circumstances in which offending and change in offending take
16 Ú. Barr
place. The research for Desisting Sisters brought me into contact with 16
criminalised women, who undertook at least one self-narrative life-course
interview between summer 2014 and spring 2015. All the women had
served or were serving a sentence for an offence. Although other women’s
narratives are included in the book, including staff members of both the
WCs and the HfN Project, as well as additional criminalised women who
attended WC group meetings, much of the analysis is based around these
16 women. The women’s narratives include everyday stories of everyday
lives and backgrounds as well as stories of horror and victimisation, but also
of resilience and hope, often against all odds. The words used to describe
the offences committed by the women are from their own narratives,
which, although often replete with criminal justice discourse, tended to use
the terms below to describe the women’s contact with the CJS (Table 1.1).
As can be seen, the women were interviewed at a variety of ages. As will
become clear from their narratives, the criminalisation of women is situ-
ated in contexts of abuse, relationship problems (including separation
from children), material deprivation, poverty, mental health issues, and
drug and alcohol dependency (Prison Reform Trust 2017). The women’s
offences differed in consistency, frequency and severity. Largely, the wom-
en’s offences were relatively low level; only one of the most recent offences
could be described as violent and most could be described as acquisitive
crimes. Yet these findings are typical. In 2007 Baroness Corston argued
that women are likely to be criminalised when facing certain conditions:
[First] … domestic circumstances and problems such as domestic violence,

child-care issues, being a single-parent; second, personal circumstances
such as mental illness, low self-esteem, eating disorders, substance misuse;
and third, socio-economic factors such as poverty, isolation and unemploy-
ment. When women are experiencing a combination of factors from each
of these three types of vulnerabilities, it is likely to lead to a crisis point that
ultimately results in prison. (The Corston Report 2007: 2)
The lives of criminalised in the CJS, whether serving community sen-

tences or serving time in prison, have changed little since Baroness
Corston’s 2007 report. Whilst these ‘vulnerabilities’ are often the factors
which lead to offending, they often still remain, or indeed are deepened
Table 1.1 Sixteen criminalised women interviewed for this research

Based (living,
Originally working.
Age at first contacted Attending WCs/
Name interview Most recent offencea through probation)
Sue 40 Drink driving Women’s Southton
Centres
Paula 36 Theft Women’s Easton
Centres
Katie 60 Benefit fraud Women’s Northton
Centres
Grace 31 Growing cannabis Women’s Northton
Centres
Heather 24 Benefit fraud Women’s Northton
Centres
Bridget 27 Drug dealing Women’s Northton
Centres
Ruth 31 Non-payment of Women’s Southton
housing benefit Centres
overpayment
Karen 36 Burglary (joint Women’s Southton
enterprise) Centres
Anna 36 Burglary (joint Women’s Central town
enterprise) Centres
Marie 40 Handling stolen Women’s Easton
goods Centres
Holly 23 Shoplifting Women’s Easton
Centres
Julie 59 Tax fraud Women’s Easton
Centres
Shelly 53 Assault on a police Housing for Easton
officer Northshire
Project
Michaela 34 Shoplifting Housing for Easton
Northshire
Project
Kelly- 48 Violating terms of Housing for Easton
Marie probation after a Northshire
shoplifting offence Project
Rebecca 46 Credit card fraud Housing for Easton
Northshire
Project
a
For which the women were most recently criminalised
18 Ú. Barr
(as a result of the harms of CJS contact) during desistance attempts. Yet
Corston (2007: 15) argued that the way to address these issues was ‘by
helping women develop resilience, life skills and emotional literacy’. As
will become clear, the Corston Report did not go far enough. Although
women’s narratives contained many examples of resilience, and indeed
were great sources of resilience themselves, the patriarchal capitalism
which was the source of the victimisation of the women I spoke with
(through their experiences of domestic violence, abject poverty and cuts
to sources of support, for example) which, as well as their criminalisation,
made desistance an arduous and often unsuccessful task. Individualising
women’s experiences of both criminalisation and desistance is harmful
both in stark desistance terms linked to offending and criminalisation,
and more holistically in terms of women’s life circumstances.
Although noted above, the offence(s) carried out were rarely the pivot
around which the woman’s life has turned. As posited by Corston (2007),
offending can be a normative consequence of the personal, social and
structural inequalities faced by women. The strength and resilience of
women as highlighted in so many of their narratives can be celebrated and
practitioners can work to build upon this resilience where it is present. Yet
responsibilisation cannot be the only desistance response. Contesting and
resisting structural inequalities can be central to any desistance intervention.
Chapter Outline
Desisting Sisters is set out in eight chapters. Chapter 2 explores the three
traditional desistance theories; maturational (ontogenetic), social bonds
(sociological) and narrative (subjective) theories and the development of
the study of desistance and difference, to include what is currently ‘known’
about female desistance journeys. The subsequent chapters offer a femi-
nist perspective on the three current explanatory themes for desistance.
Chapter 3 briefly examines the ontogenetic perspective, concluding that it
offers an incomplete and gender-blind approach to explaining contempo-
rary female desistance journeys. Chapter 4 moves on to examine socio-
logical explanations, particularly focusing on Sampson and Laub’s (1993)
and Laub and Sampson’s (2003) theoretical paradigm. The conclusion
here is that ‘social bonds’ theories which do not take account of the gen-
dered inequalities faced by women within and outwith criminal justice con-
texts are woefully incomplete and often dangerous. Myths perpetuated
about the central importance of marriage and employment to desistance, in
a context where women facing CJS sanctions are experiencing abuse as well
as the structural inequalities of austerity, can be destructive. Alternative and
modified social bonds are considered. Subjective theories are examined from
a feminist perspective in Chap. 5. It will be argued that subjective experi-
ences are crucial in the desistance narratives of women travelling or attempt-
ing to travel desistance journeys. Yet subjective processes cannot be divorced
from their contexts; hope and self-efficacy are not one and the same.
Problematic ideas around stigma and shame as well as identity change (par-
ticularly surrounding women’s relational identities) will be explored in this
chapter, concluding that the double deviance which surrounds women’s
criminalisation is entrenched when women ‘exit’ the CJS. This can mar
desistance attempts and create psychological harm. Having examined these
three thematic explanations for desistance, the book moves on to consider
interventions of the CJS (Chap. 6) which to a greater or lesser extent are
justified for their desistance-promoting qualities. In particular, the book
examines the new CJS paradigm, ‘Transforming Rehabilitation’ (TR), as
linked with ‘Payment by Results’ (PbR), focusing on their problematic
nature, particularly in the context of women’s desistance and the neoliberal
agenda pursued. Chapter 7 draws the key themes of Desisting Sisters together,
with a focus on the structural contexts of desistance. It considers what an
anti-carceral feminist approach, grounded in the elimination of social harms
can offer and locates the invisible analytic structures ever present in desis-
tance discourse. Finally, Chap. 8 critiques ongoing liberal reform of the CJS,
and, linking with arguments made by Pat Carlen some 30 years ago (1990),
sets out recommendations for a woman-wise, community-based penology.
Conclusion
It is important to note the context of women’s offending and desistance
pathways. Desistance does not happen in the absence of other factors and
this chapter has attempted to highlight the importance of space and place
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"What did she do?"
"Stop asking questions and I'll tell you!" Erna exclaimed in
exasperation. "First of all, I had perfectly wonderful holidays. I stayed
most of the time with a nurse from the hospital. My mother and father
are getting a divorce and I'm glad." And she stared at Flip and Jackie
defiantly.
"Oh, Erna," Jackie cried.
"Well, mutti's not a bit like your mother," Erna said, "and she's never
liked me. But my father was just wonderful and Marianne, she's the
nurse, was awfully nice, too, and took me to the movies when she
was off duty. And she told me my father was a great surgeon and a
wonderful man and I saw an operation and I didn't faint or anything
and my father told me he was very happy I was going to be a doctor
and he'd help me all he could. And he talked to me lots and lots and
said he was sorry he never had time to write me or anything but he
loved me just the same and he'd try to write me more. And then he
told me he and mutti disagreed about many things and they
disagreed about the world and Germany and people and things in
general. They'd disagreed about the war and the Nazis only father
couldn't say anything because of my brothers and mutti and me and
everything. He said all the injured and wounded people needed to be
taken care of and it wasn't their fault, mostly, not the fault of—what
did he call them? the—the little people. So he felt all right taking care
of them and he was glad I was here at school because he thought it
was the best place in the world for me right now. And it was really
wonderful, kids, because he'd always been so kind of stern and
everything and I'd never really known him before or felt that I had a
father the way you two do, and now I have, even if mutti still doesn't
love me."
Flip and Jackie listened, neither of them looking at the other or at
Erna because there was too much emotion in the room and they
both felt full of too much pity for Erna even while she was telling
them how happy she was. But they caught the sorrow in her voice
when she spoke of her mother, and Flip felt that having your mother
not love you would be the bitterest way of all to lose her.
"Well, I expect you're wondering what all this has to do with Percy,"
Erna continued, her voice suddenly brisk. "My father's brother, my
uncle Guenther, is a doctor, too, and he used to know Percy's sister,
the singer, and he knew about this school and that's how I happened
to come here. He was a Nazi for a while and then he wanted to stop
being one and they put him in a prison but they needed surgeons
and so they let him out and he had to pretend he was a Nazi but all
the time he was trying to work against them. Really he was. I know
lots of them say that now because it's—what's the word father used
—expedient—but Uncle Guenther really did try, and then he just took
care of the hurt people like my father did because hurt people should
be taken care of no matter who they are."
"It's all right," Jackie said. "We believe you. Do go on about Percy."
"Well, Percy's sister sang in Berlin for the Americans and Uncle
Guenther came to see her and they got to talking about old times
and everything and then they talked about the war and how it was
awful that friends should be enemies and they each said they'd
wanted to be on—on the side of life and not on the side of death.
And Percy's sister said she hadn't been able to do anything but sing.
Madame and her husband had been living in Paris where he taught
history at the Sorbonne and Percy taught art at one of the Lycées.
They were both wonderful skiers and they left and came to
Switzerland, to the border between Switzerland and Germany, and
they became guides who helped people escape into Switzerland.
Their daughter had died of pneumonia just at the beginning of the
war and it made Percy very serious. Uncle Guenther said that before
that she had been very gay and used to love to go to parties and
things. Anyhow, they became these guides, I mean Madame and her
husband did, and once when they were bringing a party over the
border they were discovered and Percy's husband was shot just
before they got into Switzerland."
Tender-hearted Jackie had tears in her eyes and Flip's face was
pale.
"Well," Erna said, "I just thought you'd want to know and you were
the only two people in school I could tell it to."
"Oh, Erna!" Jackie cried. "Oh, Erna! How awful! And it's just like an
American movie, Percy helping people to escape and everything."
"Golly, it's going to be awful without her the rest of the year," Erna
said. "I'm glad this Miss Redford seems nice."
"Thank you for telling me, too, Erna." Flip slid down from her desk as
the breakfast gong began to ring.
"Oh, well, I knew you were crazy about Percy. Come on, kids, time
for food." And Erna hurried them out of the classroom.
9
The days really began to go by as Flip had never thought days at
school could go. She remembered in the movies how the passage of
time was often shown by the pages of a calendar being turned in
rapid succession, and it seemed now that the days at school were
being flipped by in just such a way. She would get up in the cold dark
of early morning, dress, shivering, make her bed, and rush out to
practice skiing.
"Where do you go every morning, Flip?" her roommates asked her.
"It's a secret," she finally had to tell them, "but I'll tell you as soon as I
possibly can."
"What kind of a secret?"
"Well, I think it's going to be a nice secret," Flip said.
She spent Sundays skiing with Paul and usually stayed at the gate
house for the evening meal.
"Flip, have you ever seen the others ski?" Paul asked her.
"No. Sometimes on walks we pass the beginners and you can see
them from the windows of the gym. But the others usually take the
train up to San Loup and I haven't seen them."
"Then you don't really know what you're up against?"
"No."
"So you can't really tell how you'll stand the day of the ski meet."
"No."
"Well—" Paul threw out his arms and pushed back his chair. "There's
no use worrying about it. Aunt Colette said you should definitely sign
up with the intermediates and she certainly ought to know."
There was a letter one day from her father. "I'm sketching at the
hostel where your Madame Perceval is teaching," he wrote. "She's
doing amazing work with the children here and they all adore her.
She speaks affectionately of you and sends you her regards."
And Paul told her, "My father had a letter from Aunt Colette. She's
met your father."
One Sunday while they were at the table Flip said to Paul, "Why
don't you ski back down to school with me if your father will let us,
and then I could sort of show you around and he could come and get
you."
"No," Paul said.
"Why not?"
"I just don't want to."
"Why don't you go, Paul?" Georges Laurens put in. "It would do you
good."
"Please, Paul," Flip begged. "School's been lots of fun since
Christmas."
"You've certainly changed," Paul said, looking down at his plate.
"Yes, I have. And it's lots nicer. I'm not the most popular girl in school
or anything but they don't hate me any more, and Erna and Jackie
and Solvei and Maggie are nice to me and everybody likes it
because I draw pictures of them. Anyhow, you don't have to come in
or say a word to anybody if you don't want to, you can go on
avoiding institutions. But I want to ski back to school and I can't
unless you go with me because I'm not allowed to be out alone."
"There you are," Paul said. "Rules again."
"Honestly!" Flip cried, and for the first time in speaking to Paul her
voice held anger. "Prisons and concentration camps and things
aren't the only place where you have rules! You have to have rules!
Look at international law."
"You look at it," Paul said.
Flip was getting really furious. "All right, I will! And I'll see what
happens when nations go against it! You have wars and then you
have bombs and concentration camps and people being killed and
everything horrible. You have to have some rules! Hospitals have
rules and if you're going to be a doctor you'll be working in hospitals.
It's just plain common sense to accept some rules! It's just plain
courtesy! I never thought I'd see you being stupid, Paul Laurens!
And if you're going to tell me you're afraid of a few girls I won't
believe you."
Paul stood up, knocking over his chair, and walked out of the room.
Flip sat down and she was trembling. She looked across the table at
Georges Laurens, her eyes wide with dismay. "I've upset him. That
was awful of me. I'm sorry."
"It's all right," Georges Laurens said. "Losing your temper that way
was the best thing you could have done. Finish your tart."
Flip picked up her fork and began eating again but now the tart that
had looked so delectable when Thérèse put it in front of her was only
something to be forced down. She had just swallowed the last bite
when Paul came back and stood in the doorway.
"All right," he almost shouted at Flip. "Get your skis. Please come for
me in an hour, papa."
"An hour it shall be," Georges Laurens said.
It took them less than half an hour to ski back to the school. Flip took
Paul into the ski room while she put her skis in the rack. "I didn't
mean to make you angry," she said. "I'm sorry, Paul. Please forgive
me."
Paul shook his head. "No. You were quite right. Everything you said.
I don't know what's the matter with me."
"Would you—" Flip asked tentatively, "would you mind if I brought
Jackie and Erna down for just a minute? They're dying to meet you
and it's—it's strictly against the rules."
Paul laughed. "All right. Go ahead."
Flip went tearing along the corridor and up the stairs. She slowed
down when she came to the lounge because Fräulein Hauser was
on duty, and walked as quickly as possible to the Common Room.
Luckily Jackie and Erna were off in a corner together, reading a letter
from Jackie's mother.
"Get permission from Hauser to go to the libe and meet me in the
room," she whispered. Then she hurried away and ran up the stairs,
pulling off ski jacket and sweater on the way. Jackie and Erna came
in as she was throwing on her uniform.
"What's up?"
"Come on down to the ski room with me," Flip panted.
"Are you crazy?" Erna asked. "Hauser won't give us permission. The
basement at this time of night is strengt verboten."
"Don't be a nut," Flip said, "Paul's down there. He came back with
me. We can slip down the back stairs. Oh, come on, kids, do hurry."
Both Erna's and Jackie's faces lit up when Flip mentioned Paul and
they followed her excitedly down the back stairs. For a moment
when they got to the ski room Flip thought that Paul had run out on
her, but no; he turned to meet them with a grin.
"Hello," Paul said, pulling off his cap and bowing.
"Paul, this is Erna and Jackie," Flip said quickly. "Kids, this is Paul
Laurens, Madame's nephew."
They all said hello and sat down on the benches.
Flip began to talk quickly. "Erna and Jackie are my roommates, Paul.
You remember. I told you about them. I would have brought Gloria—
you know, she's our other roommate—but she can't ever keep a
secret. If you want anything spread all over school you just take
Gloria aside and tell it to her as a dead secret and you know
everybody'll know about it in a couple of hours. She's lots of fun,
though. Oh, and you know what we did to her!"
"What?" Paul asked, rather taken aback by this jabbering Flip.
"The ears," Flip said to Erna and Jackie, and the three of them went
off into gales of laughter. "You tell him, Jackie," Flip said.
"Well, Gloria never used to wash her ears," Jackie began, "so we
wrote her a letter pretending it came from Signorina del Rossi—she's
the teacher on our corridor. We didn't dare make it from the matron
because she'd have given us Deportment marks but Signorina's a
good sport. Anyhow, Flip wrote the letter, and she imitated
Signorina's handwriting, and it said that Gloria was to go to Signorina
every morning right after breakfast for ear inspection. Black and
Midnight—she's the matron and sleeps on our corridor, too—
inspects our fingernails every morning but she doesn't look at our
ears. So Gloria got this letter and that evening we heard her washing
and washing in her cubicle and the next morning we hid behind the
door to the back stairs because that's opposite Signorina's room,
and Gloria came and knocked on Signorina's door and we heard her
tell Signorina she'd come for ear inspection. And Signorina was just
wonderful. She never let on that she didn't know what it was all
about but looked at Gloria's ears and told her they were very nice
and as long as she kept them that way she needn't come back."
Paul laughed obligingly, then said, "it's time for me to meet my father
now, but I'll see you all at the ski meet. It's pretty soon now, isn't it?"
Erna hugged herself in anticipation and said, "Fräulein Hauser told
us at dinner that it was definitely going to be next Saturday. The lists
go up on Friday, and it's tremendously exciting, signing up for
things."
Paul gave Flip a nudge. "I suppose you'll all be signing up for things."
"All except Flip," Erna said, and Paul gave Flip another nudge.
They said good-bye at the foot of the back stairs. Paul bowed
gallantly and told Erna and Jackie how much he'd enjoyed meeting
them, and then he and Flip went out to meet Monsieur Laurens.
"Just a week more, Flip," Paul whispered.
"I know," Flip whispered back, and shivered.
"Don't be scared," Paul told her. "You'll be fine. But Flip, how time
has crept up on us!"
"Like the wolf at the door." Flip tried to laugh; then, her voice
suddenly pleading, the voice of a very small, frightened girl, she
begged, "You'll be there, Paul?"
"I promise," Paul said. "Don't worry, Flip. I'll be there."
10
Friday morning after breakfast the lists for the ski meet were on the
board. Flip had rushed through breakfast as usual in order to get a
last morning's work-out on her skis, so she was the first to sign up.
She took the pencil attached to the board by a long chain and looked
at the intermediate events. There was Form, which she signed up
for; the short race, which she also signed for, though sprinting was
not her strong point; and the long race, for which she had higher
hopes. Then there was intermediate jumping, but she didn't sign for
that. Madame Perceval had told her that she was good enough to
jump without worry if ever there were a necessity or emergency, but
the slight stiffness and weakness in her knee held her back more on
the jumping than in anything else. So there was her name at the top
of the intermediate lists, Philippa Hunter, 97, in careful, decisive
lettering. She looked at her name and her stomach seemed to flop
over inside of her.
But there isn't time to be scared, she thought. I'd better go out and
ski.
When she came back in to get the mail the lists were pretty well filled
up. Almost everybody in Flip's class was an intermediate. A few
were in the beginners group and Solvei was a senior, but almost all
the girls she knew best had signed under her name and none of
them had failed to notice Philippa Hunter, 97, at the top of the list.
"But Flip, you don't ski!"
"Pill, did you know those lists were for the ski meet?"
"Flip, you didn't mean to sign up for the ski meet, did you?"
"Are you crazy, Philippa Hunter?"
She looked at their incredulous faces and suddenly she began to
wonder if she really could ski. "Yes, I did mean to sign up," she told
them.
"But Flip, you can't ski!"
"Fräulein Hauser said you couldn't learn!"
"She said she couldn't teach you!"
"Pill, you must have gone mad!"
"I'm not mad," Flip said, standing with her back against the bulletin
board while the girls crowded around her. "I'm not mad. I did mean to
sign." She tried to move away but they pushed her back against the
board.
Fräulein Hauser came over and said, "Girls!" Then she looked at Flip
and said, "Philippa Hunter, I want to speak to you."
The girls moved away and Flip followed Fräulein Hauser up the
stairs. Now that Madame Perceval was no longer at the school
Fräulein Hauser had taken her place as second to Mlle. Dragonet
and most popular of the teachers. But Flip still stung from the gym
teacher's scorn and when she drew Fräulein Hauser's table at meals
she did not regard it as a piece of good fortune.
Now Fräulein Hauser led her to the deserted class room and said,
"What did you mean by signing up for three events in the ski meet?"
Flip looked stubbornly into Fräulein Hauser's determined, sun-
tanned face. "I want to ski in them."
"Don't be ridiculous." Fräulein Hauser's voice was sharp and
annoyance robbed her features of their usually pleasant expression.
"You know you can't ski well enough to enter even the beginner's
events, much less the intermediate."
"I've been practicing every morning after breakfast for an hour."
"I assure you, Philippa, that you are not a skier. You simply are not
good at sports because of your bad knee and you might as well face
it. You had better stick to your painting. I thought you were settling
down nicely and I must say I don't understand this wild idea of yours
in entering the ski meet. Now be a sensible girl and go downstairs
and take your name off."
Now I shall have to explain, Flip thought, and started, "No, please,
Fräulein Hauser, you see I really do want to enter the ski meet
because—"
But Fräulein Hauser did not give her a chance to finish. "I'm sorry,
Philippa. I haven't time to waste on this nonsense. Suppose you let
me be the judge of whether or not you can ski well enough to enter
the meet. Now go downstairs and cross your name off the list or I
shall."
"But please, Fräulein Hauser—" Flip started.
Fräulein Hauser turned away without listening. "I'm sorry, Philippa,"
she said.
"But Fräulein Hauser, I can ski!" Flip cried after her. But the gym
teacher was already out of the room and didn't hear.
Flip waited long enough to give Fräulein Hauser time to get to the
faculty room. Then she walked swiftly down the corridor before she
had time to lose her nerve, and knocked on the door to Mlle.
Dragonet's sitting room.
When Mlle. Dragonet's voice called out "Come in," she didn't know
whether she was filled with relief or regret. She opened the door and
slipped inside, shut it, and stood with her back to it as she had stood
against the bulletin board downstairs.
Mlle. Dragonet was drinking coffee and going over some papers at a
table in front of the fire; she looked up and said kindly, "Well,
Philippa, what can I do for you?"
"Please, Mlle. Dragonet," Flip said desperately, "isn't it entirely up to
the girls whether or not we enter the ski meet and what we sign up
for? I mean, Erna told me you didn't have to be in it if you didn't want
to, and if you did, you could sign up for anything and it was entirely
your own responsibility what you thought you were good enough for."
"Yes. That's right." Mlle. Dragonet nodded and poured herself some
more coffee out of a silver coffee pot.
"Well, Fräulein Hauser says I must take my name off the lists."
"Why does she say that?" Mlle. Dragonet dropped a saccharine
tablet into her coffee and poured some hot milk into it as though it
were the one thing in the world she was thinking of at the moment.
"Well, when we first started skiing she said I couldn't learn to ski and
she couldn't teach me and I had to give it up. Then Madame
Perceval found out my skis were too long and there was a pair some
girl had left that fitted me and Madame and Paul have been teaching
me to ski. I've practiced every morning after breakfast for an hour
and during the Christmas hols we skied all the time and went on
overnight skiing trips and things and Madame said I should enter the
ski meet as an intermediate. But now Fräulein Hauser says I have to
take my name off the list because she doesn't know I can ski."
"Why didn't you explain to Fräulein Hauser?" Mlle. Dragonet asked.
"I tried to, but she wouldn't listen. I don't think she knew I had
anything to explain. And Madame Perceval said I shouldn't say
anything about her helping me. She said I should say it was just
Paul, and I don't think that would have convinced Fräulein Hauser,
no matter how good a skier Paul is, because I was so awful before.
That's why I had to come to you, Mademoiselle."
Mlle. Dragonet picked up her pencil and twirled it. "So you've been
keeping your skiing a secret?"
"Yes, Mlle. Dragonet."
"Whose idea was this?"
"Paul's. He thought it would be so much fun to surprise everybody."
"Was he coming to the ski meet?"
"Yes, Mademoiselle."
"I can see," Mlle. Dragonet said, "how Paul would think it was fun to
surprise everybody, and how you would think it was fun, too. But
don't you think it's a little hard on Fräulein Hauser?" Her brown eyes
looked mildly at Flip.
Flip countered with another question. "Don't you think Fräulein
Hauser should have noticed that my skis were too long? I know she
has so many beginners she can't pay too much attention to any one
person, and I've always been bad at sports, but as soon as I got skis
that were the right length for me I was better. I wasn't good but at
least it was possible for me to learn."
"And you think you have learned?"
"Yes, Mademoiselle. And it was Madame Perceval who said I should
enter as an intermediate. I haven't seen the others ski so I wouldn't
have known in what group I belonged."
"So Madame Perceval taught you, did she?" Mlle. Dragonet asked.
She put her pencil down and said, "Very well, Philippa. I'll speak to
Fräulein Hauser and explain the situation. It's almost time for Call
Over now. You'd better get down stairs."
"Thank you, Mlle. Dragonet. Thank you ever so much. And you won't
say anything about its being Madame Perceval who found me the
skis and helped me, please? Because she said it would be better not
to, only I didn't think she'd mind if I told you under these—these—
imperative circumstances."
Mlle. Dragonet smiled. "I won't say anything about her part in it. I
promise."
"I'm sorry to have bothered you," Flip said. "I didn't want to but I
didn't know what else to do. I was desperate."
"It's what I'm here for, Philippa," Mlle. Dragonet said.
As Flip left Mlle. Dragonet's sitting room and started down stairs she
wondered how she could ever live through the hours until the ski
meet. The two months since the Christmas holidays had flown by
like a swift bird but the brief time until the next day stretched out
ahead of her like an eternity.
Erna met her when she got downstairs. "You didn't get your mail,
Flip. I took it for you."
"Oh, thanks ever so much," Flip said. "Oh, wonderful! It's a letter
from father. Thanks lots, Erna."
There was just time to read the letter before Call Over if she hurried,
and she was glad to escape the questions and exclamations of the
girls who came clustering about her again, probing her about the ski
meet, telling her that Fräulein Hauser had already crossed her name
off the lists.
She ran down the corridor to the bathroom, locked herself in, and
opened her father's letter.—I'm so glad it came today, she thought.—
I need it to give me courage for tomorrow.
11
"My darling champion skier," the letter began. "How proud I am of
the way you've worked at your skiing and I hope your triumph at the
ski meet will be everything you and Paul could hope for. Now please
don't be disappointed, darling—as a matter of fact maybe you'll be
relieved—but I don't think I'll be able to make it for the ski meet.
You'll probably do much better if you're not worrying about my being
there and the spring holidays will be here before we know it."
She sat staring at the closed white bathroom door in front of her, with
the paint chipped off in places. She was filled with completely
disproportionate disappointment. When she heard someone
pounding on the door and calling, "Flip! Flip!" she could not keep the
unwelcome tears from her eyes.
"Flip! Flip!"
She forced the tears back and opened the door and Erna and Jackie
were anxiously waiting for her.
"Flip!" Erna cried. "You missed Call Over and Hauser's simply furious
and she wants to see you right away."
"She says you're sulking because she took your name off the ski
lists. Oh, Flip, what do you want to be in the ski meet for anyhow
when you can't ski!"
"I can ski," Flip said. "And I'm not sulking because of the ski meet.
Father said he could come and now he can't." The tears began to
trickle down her cheeks. "I haven't seen him since school began,"
she managed to whisper.
Erna patted her clumsily on the shoulder. "That's awful, Flip. That's
an awful shame."
"Maybe he'll be able to come at the last minute," Jackie said. "Don't
cry, Flip."
The door opened again and Fräulein Hauser, looking extremely
annoyed, stood in the doorway.
"Really, Philippa Hunter!" she exclaimed. "I have seldom seen such
a display of bad sportsmanship."
Flip drew herself up and suddenly she looked very tall and strong as
she stood facing the gym teacher. "Fräulein Hauser," she said. "I did
not skip Call Over because you took my name off the ski lists. I didn't
even know you'd taken it off. I am crying because I expected to see
my father and now I'm not going to."
Fräulein Hauser looked at the tear blurred face and the crumpled
letter and at Erna and Jackie nodding in corroboration of Flip's words
and said, more gently, "I'm sorry I misunderstood you, Philippa." And
she smiled. "But you can hardly blame me."
"Please, Fräulein Hauser," Flip said. "I've been trying to tell you that I
did learn to ski."
"Philippa, we settled that question this morning. Let's not reopen it."
Fräulein Hauser's voice was short again. "Get along to your
classroom, and quickly, all three of you. It's almost time for the bell."
12
At lunch time Flip's name was written in again over the heavy red
line Fräulein Hauser had used to cross it out.
"Flip, you didn't put your name back!" Erna cried.
Flip shook her head desperately. "I didn't! It's not my writing! It's
Fräulein Hauser's writing! Mlle. Dragonet gave me permission to be
in the ski meet. Paul taught me how to ski." She put her hands to her
head. "If I'd thought there'd be all this fuss and bother I'd never have
entered the old ski meet!" Her head was a wild confusion of misery.
If I could just tell them it was Madame who taught me how to ski that
would make it all right, she thought.
"Hey, Flip," Erna said. "If you don't want your pudding, I do."
After lunch Kaatje van Leyden sought her out. "Look here, Philippa, I
hear you're entering the ski meet."
Flip looked up at the older girl. "Yes, Kaatje."
"Fräulein Hauser says you can't ski."
"If I couldn't ski I wouldn't have entered the ski meet," Flip said. Her
mind was beginning to feel cold and numb the way her hands did in
the very cold mornings when she was out skiing.
"Did you know that the points made or lost in the ski meet count for
the school teams?" Kaatje asked. "You could make a team lose for
the year if you pulled it down badly enough in the ski meet."
"I won't pull it down," Flip said, but she was beginning to lose faith in
herself.
"Which team are you?"
"Odds. I'm number 97. Please, Kaatje. I promise you I can ski. I
know I've pulled the Odds down in my gym work but I won't pull them
down in the ski meet."
"But how did you learn to ski? Fräulein Hauser said you were so
hopeless she couldn't teach you. Sorry, but that's what she said and
the ski meet's tomorrow so there isn't time to beat around bushes."
"Please, Kaatje," Flip said, "Paul Laurens, Madame Perceval's
nephew, taught me every week-end, and he's a wonderful skier, and
we skied during the holidays all the time and I've practiced an hour
every morning after breakfast. Please, Kaatje, please believe me!"
Flip implored.
Kaatje put her hands on her hips and looked at Flip. "I don't know
what to think. I'm captain of the Evens as well as School Games
Captain and if the Evens win through your losing points the Odds are
going to blame me for it."
"Do you think Mlle. Dragonet would have put my name back on the
lists if she'd thought I couldn't ski?"
"That's just it," Kaatje said. "I wouldn't think so, but you never know
what the Dragon's going to take it into her head to do. If she's given
you permission and you insist that you can ski I suppose there's
nothing I can do about it." Then her frown disappeared and she gave
Flip a friendly grin. "Here's good luck on it anyhow," she said, holding
out her hand.
"Thanks, Kaatje," Flip said, taking it.
13
It couldn't have been a better day for a ski meet. It was very cold
and still and the sky was that wonderful blue that seems to go up,
up, up, and the sun seemed very bright and very far away in the
heavens. The snow sparkled with blinding brilliance and everybody
was filled with excitement.
But Flip sat in the train on the way up to Gstaad and she felt as cold
and white as the snow and not in the least sparkling. Paul left
Georges Laurens with Mlle. Dragonet and Signorina del Rossi and
came and sat next to Flip. Erna and Jackie and the others greeted
him with pleased excitement. Flip heard Sally whispering to Esmée,
"Didn't I tell you he was divine?"
"So you taught Flip to ski!" Solvei exclaimed.
"I didn't have to do much teaching," Paul said. "She's a born skier."
Esmée got up from her seat and stood by them, attracted to the male
presence like the proverbial fly to honey. "I'm just dying to see Flip
ski," she said, smiling provocatively at Paul. "You were just wonderful
to teach her."
"Esmée, sit down," Miss Armstrong called from the end of the car,
and Esmée reluctantly withdrew.
Flip stared out the window with a set face. Her cheeks felt burning
hot and her hands felt icy cold and she had a dull pain in her
stomach. I'm sick, she thought. I feel awful. I should have gone to
Mlle. Duvoisine and she'd have taken my temperature and put me in
the infirmary and I wouldn't have had to be in the ski meet.
But she realized that the horrible feeling wasn't because she was ill,
but because she was frightened. She was even more frightened than
she had been the night she went to meet the man who said he was
Paul's father at the chateau.
She was hardly aware when Paul left her to join the spectators, or
when Erna pushed her in place to wait until the beginners had
finished. Flip watched the beginners carefully and took heart. She
was much more steady on her skis, they were much more a part of
her, than they were on any of the girls in the beginners group; and
she knew that she executed her turns with far more precision and
surety than any of them. She looked at the beginners and she looked
at the judges, Fräulein Hauser, and Miss Redford who had turned
out to be quite an expert skier, from the school; a jolly looking
English woman who was sports mistress at the English school down
the mountain; and two professional skiers who sat smiling tolerantly
at the efforts of the beginners.
After the beginners had been tested for form they had a short race
which was won by little Lischen Bechman, one of the smallest girls in
the school and then Flip felt Erna pushing her forward. She stood in
line with all the rest of the intermediates, between Erna and Maggie
Campbell. One of the professional skiers stood up to give the
directions. Flip snapped on her skis and pushed off with the others.
She followed directions in a haze and was immeasurably grateful for
the hours of practice which made her execute her christianas and
telemarks with automatic perfection. The judge told half the girls to
drop out, but Flip was among those left standing as the judge put
them through their paces again.
Now all but five of the girls were sent to the side, Flip, Erna, Esmée
Bodet, Maggie Campbell, and Bianca Colantuono. Flip's mouth felt
very dry and the tip of her tongue stuck out between her teeth. This
time the judge only kept them a few minutes.
Jumping was next and only a few of the intermediates had entered
that. Girls clustered around Flip, exclaiming, laughing,
"Why, Flip, you old fox, you!"
"Why did you keep this up your sleeve, Pill?"
"Did Hauser really refuse to teach you?"
And Kaatje van Leyden came over from the seniors and shook her
hand saying, "Good work, Philippa. You really knew what you were
talking about, didn't you? The Odds don't have to worry about your
being on their team."
Flip blushed with pleasure and looked down at the snow under her
feet and she loved it so and was filled with such excitement and
triumph that she wanted to get down on her knees and kiss it; but
instead she watched the jumpers. She felt that Erna was by far the
best and was pleased with the thought that she would win.
Then it was time for the Short Race. Flip stood poised at the top of
the hill and launched herself forward at the signal. She tried to cut
through the cold air with the swift precision of an arrow and was
pleased when she came in fifth, because Madame had told her not
to worry about the Short Race, to enter it only for experience,
because she would do best in the Long Race.
While the seniors lined up for form, Flip and the other intermediates
who had signed up for the Long Race got on the funicular to go up to
the starting point further up the mountain. Madame Perceval had
taken Flip over the course of the race several times during the
holidays so she was almost as familiar with it as the other girls who
had been skiing it once a week with Fräulein Hauser.
They were all tense as they lined up at the starting point. Kaatje van
Leyden gave the signal and they were off. Flip felt a sense of wild
exhilaration as she started down the mountain, and she knew that
nothing else was like this. Flying in a plane could not give you this
feeling of being the bird, of belief in your own personal wings.
Before the race was half over it became evident that it was to be
between Flip, Erna, and Esmée. Flip's mind seemed to be cut
cleanly in half; one half was filled with pure pleasure at the skiing
and the other with a set determination to win this race. The three of
them kept very close together, first one, then another, taking the
advantage. Then, as they had to go through a clump of trees, Erna
took the lead and pushed ahead with Flip next and Esmée dropping
well behind.
Flip made a desperate effort and had just spurted ahead of Erna
when she heard a cry, and, looking back, she saw Erna lying in the
snow. She checked her speed, turned, and went back. As Erna saw
her coming she called out, "Go on, Flip! Go on! Don't worry about
me!"
But she ended on a groan and Flip continued back up the
mountainside. Esmée flashed by without even looking at Erna; and
Flip, as she slowly made her way up the snow, thought, I've lost the
race.
But she knelt by Erna and said, "What happened?"
"Caught the tip of my ski on a piece of ice," Erna gasped. Her face
was very white and her lips were blue with pain and cold. "You
shouldn't have come back."
"Don't be silly," Flip said, and her voice sounded angry. "Is it your
ankle?"
"Yes. I think I've busted it or something."
Flip unsnapped Erna's skis and took them off. Then she unlaced the
boot of the injured ankle and gently pulled it off. "I don't think it's
broken. I think it's a bad sprain."
"What's up?" Kaatje van Leyden who had been skiing down the
mountain side with them drew up beside them.
"Erna's hurt her ankle," Flip said. "I think it's sprained."
Now more of the racers came in sight, but Kaatje waved them on.
"Esmée's won but we might as well see who comes in second and
third."
"Flip lost the race because of me," Erna told Kaatje. "She was way
ahead of Esmée but when I fell she turned around and came back to
me."
"And Esmée went on?" Kaatje asked. "Well, it's a good thing you
came back and got Erna's boot off, Philippa, or we'd have had an
awful time. Her foot's swelling like anything. Hurt badly, Erna?"
Erna, her teeth clenched, nodded.
"Philippa, if we make a chair with our hands do you think we can ski
down together with Erna? It will be quite a job not to jolt her, but I
think we'd better get her down to Duvoisine as soon as possible.
How about it?" Kaatje asked.
"O.K.," Flip said.
Jackie, trailing gallantly down at the tail of the race, stopped in
dismay at the sight of Erna lying on the ground, and helped her up
onto Flip's and Kaatje's hands. Then they started slowly down the
mountain. This was the most difficult skiing Flip had ever done,
because she did not have her arms to help her balance herself and
she and Kaatje had to ski as though they were one, making their
turns and swerves in complete unison in order not to jolt Erna who
was trying bravely not to cry out in pain. Jackie had skied on ahead
and Mlle. Duvoisine was waiting for them with the doctor, and Erna
was borne off to the chalet to be administered to. Flip looked almost
as limp and white as Erna as she went to join the other intermediates
who were eating sandwiches while they waited for the senior events
to be finished.
So now it was all over. She thought she had done well in Form, but
she had lost both races. She felt too tired, and too depressed now
that her part in the long-waited-for meet was over, to be elated
simply because she had skied well.
Just as Kaatje van Leyden came swooping down to win the seniors'
Long Race, Jackie said, "Here's Erna," and Mlle. Duvoisine was
pushing Erna, sitting on one chair, her bandaged foot in a green ski
sock with a large hole in the toe, on another, across the snow to
them. They all clustered about her.

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PDF Desisting Sisters Gender Power and Desistance in The Criminal in Justice System Una Barr Ebook Full Chapter

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Desisting Sisters Gender Power and

Desistance in the Criminal In Justice

Best Practices for the Mentally Ill in the Criminal

America’s Courts and the Criminal Justice System 13th

The American System of Criminal Justice 13th Edition

The American System of Criminal Justice 16th Edition

Criminal Justice and Corruption: State Power,

The Practice of Research in Criminology and Criminal

Criminal Justice in Canada Eighth Edition Colin

Criminal Justice in Action 10th Edition Larry K. Gaines

More information about this series at

Critical Criminological Perspectives

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019934467

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019

Cover illustration: Alamy FG9H5G

e­ ver-­supportive boss, Janet Jamieson. Particular and special thanks go to

2 Explaining Desistance: Traditional Perspectives 25

3 A Case of Growing Up? A Feminist Critique of

4 ‘A Good Job and the Love of a Good Woman’: A Feminist

5 All in the Head? A Feminist Critique of Subjective Theory113

7 Making the Invisible Visible189

Desisting Sisters is the culmination of my doctoral research. The student-

© The Author(s) 2019 1

through many periods of desistance throughout the life course, making it

 esistance and the (Absence of) the ‘Woman

Aims of Desisting Sisters

nitive changes, for example) continue to be influential in both (desis-

research will be discussed. In order to consider the desistance narratives

Southton, where the Tulip Centre was based, experienced population

Allowance were higher than average in England.3 Life expectancy for

Formal Desistance Settings

During the time of my observations at the Women’s Centres (WCs) from

We don’t say we’re specialists in everything, we’re not specialists in domestic

The Housing for Northshire Project

Rebecca Brown’s Housing for Northshire Project was opened in September

So we offer a shared accommodation within community housing so that

Rebecca described the project as having a ‘peer-led, co-operative struc-

[First] … domestic circumstances and problems such as domestic violence,

The lives of criminalised in the CJS, whether serving community sen-

Table 1.1 Sixteen criminalised women interviewed for this research

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e ver-supportive boss, Janet Jamieson. Particular and special thanks go to

2 Explaining Desistance: Traditional Perspectives 25

3 A Case of Growing Up? A Feminist Critique of

4 ‘A Good Job and the Love of a Good Woman’: A Feminist

5 All in the Head? A Feminist Critique of Subjective Theory113

7 Making the Invisible Visible189

esistance and the (Absence of) the ‘Woman

Aims of Desisting Sisters

Formal Desistance Settings

The Housing for Northshire Project