This paper brings a close analysis to bear on tensions in the main discourses within probation and the wider criminal justice system, namely between punitive, target-driven approaches and the opposing gender-responsive, strengths-based, humanitarian, individualised ones. Drawing on a pilot study, which is an early part of the author's Ph.D., the article explores how probation practitioners attempt to work constructively within the constraints of statutory supervision and how the pressures and dilemmas are managed. Qualitative research methods were used whereby data were collected through videoing the supervision sessions of probation officers and women service users, as well as participant observation at probation meetings and in probation offices. Preliminary findings present new perspectives on current debates. Approaches of holistic women's centres are looked at alongside those of probation. The paper argues that, rather than imposing a probation framework onto these voluntary organisations, it is their philosophical underpinnings and structures, placing individuals' social needs at the forefront of practice with women and supporting practitioners to do so, which should be adopted formally within probation settings—Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) and the National Probation Service (NPS).

Female child sex abusers have tended to form a neglected area of study and the significance for professional practice in understanding this group of offenders has only recently achieved recognition. This article traces the burgeoning research literature on the characteristics of women perpetrators and those they abuse and finds that the damage caused to victims is severe, affecting every area of their lives throughout their lives. Although there are relatively few female sex offenders in the Criminal Justice System this article highlights that many more prisoners and probationers will have suffered at the receiving end of this type of abuse. The implications for good practice in probation work are discussed.

This article draws on the personal experience of two lecturers delivering the academic programme of the Probation Qualification Framework to students employed by a number of different Probation Trusts. It considers the current qualifying arrangements and identifies a number of issues that have come to the fore over the first three years of implementation. Specifically, it establishes the importance of all stakeholders, students, the employing Trust and NOMS understanding what is of fundamental importance for work-based distance learning study. The changing composition and characteristics of the student body and the ways in which new developments in professional knowledge are included in the curriculum are explored with particular focus on the new group of graduate entrants at Part 3. The authors remain committed to the belief that those who work in the criminal justice system of England and Wales, supporting change and rehabilitation with a complex and vulnerable client group must have a nationally recognised qualification which includes both employer responsibility for quality practice based learning and a Higher Education award.

In Mothering Justice the mantra of child centredness is held up for closer inspection. Of course the well qualified academics and practitioners who author this book believe that a child's welfare is of the utmost importance. Where they differ, is in their belief that doing the best for the child always involves supporting the mother-child relationship as fully as it can be, wherever possible. The authors' biographies, which reveal varied, impressive achievements and skills, include their credentials as mothers. Lucy Baldwin, the editor, describes her experiences as a teenage single parent, recounting the support she received from two significant professionals, her midwife and health visitor; without them she feels her life may have been quite different. Sinead O'Malley's background is described as social worker, teacher, survivor and mother of a six-year-old boy.

Examined in this article are two cases of women who have committed offences causing serious harm to others. Responses from probation practitioners are explored in the context of the women also being viewed as victims of extreme, long-term abuse and subsequent trauma. Organisational pressures and practitioners’ personal values are analysed to see in what ways interventions attempt to balance individuals’ offending and victimisation aspects, whilst also being mindful of traumatising effects of the criminal justice system itself and the impact on practitioners.