Community penalties are court-ordered punishments, falling between imprisonment and fines, and involve some contact by a criminal justice agency in a community-based setting. There has been a big increase in their use in recent years, particularly in the context of new forms of technology (e.g. electronic tagging) and community-based restorative justice conferences.

Cowritten by two scholars with experience working in governmental criminal justice roles, this book reflects on the theme of gender in thinking about pathways both into and out of crime. Loraine Gelsthorpe and Carol Hedderman draw on new empirical evidence concerning both female crime persisters and desisters to explore the limitations of the application of general desistance theory to women specifically, while also looking at what works in preventing further crime with both women and men. Further addressing concerns that what works has been defined too narrowly in terms of an exclusive focus...