Gendered Justice seeks to enhance knowledge and practice in relation to criminalised women and anyone affected by their imprisonment. It calls for compassionate trauma-informed, and gender-specific approaches. As editor Dr Lucy Baldwin explains, ‘How society engages with women coming into contact with the Criminal Justice System can have a profound and lasting effect on their lives, so it is important to ensure that that impact is an informed and positive one’. In chapters by experts from diverse backgrounds, the book examines a carefully selected mix of developments including in topical areas such as women’s rights, help and support, stigma, domestic abuse, sentencing, racism, disadvantage, poverty, deviance, labelling, homelessness, stereotyping, missed opportunities, silencing, fairness, prison visits, desistance from crime, unmet needs, and making a difference.

Editor Lucy Baldwin is an Associate Professor at Durham University. A qualified social worker and probation officer she has worked in both community-based and custodial settings. Her publications include Mothering Justice (Waterside Press, 2015) and Motherhood In and After Prison (Waterside Press, 2022). She has contributed to policy and practice change in the Criminal Justice System in the UK and is co-convenor of the international research network Women, Family, Crime and Justice. The author of the Foreword Professor Loraine Gelsthorpe is Director and Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge.