Analyse Nora’s character throughout the play Essay

In ‘A Doll’s House’ Ibsen’s use of language reflects on the dramatic change we see in Nora’s character. Ibsen uses issues that arose during the 19th century to construct themes and most importantly build up characters, all with their own distinctive language. Nora’s character changes from the beginning of the play to the end and Ibsen does this with the use of her change in language. At the beginning of the play, Nora is still a child in many ways, listening at doors and guiltily eating forbidden sweets behind her husband’s back. She has gone straight from her father’s house to her husband’s, bringing along her nursemaid to emphasize the fact that she’s never grown up. She’s also never developed a sense of self. She’s always accepted her father’s and her husband’s opinions. And she’s aware that Torvald would have no use for a wife who was his equal. But like many children, Nora knows how to manipulate Torvald by pouting or by performing for him. In the end, it is the truth about her marriage that awakens Nora. Although she may suspect that Torvald is a weak, petty man, she clings to the illusion that he’s strong, that he’ll protect her from the consequences of her act. But at the moment of truth, he abandons her completely. She is shocked into reality and sees what a sham their relationship has been. She becomes aware that her father and her husband have seen her as a doll to be played with, a figure without opinion or will of her own; first a doll-child, then a doll-wife. She also realizes that she is treating her children the same way. Her whole life has been based on illusion rather than reality. When we first see Nora and Helmer together in the beginning of Act One she is Extravagant and we notice that she is financially reckless; â€Å"Oh yes, Torvald, we can be a little extravagant now can’t we? Just a tiny bit? You’re getting a big salary now, and you’re going to make lots of money†. She uses short phrases within a series of questions and exclamations: this shows her child-like behaviour. She is influenced by money, having no independence and always relying on Helmer, she doesn’t understand the value of it. He gives her status. Nora has a Fast tempo whilst speaking; this shows her excitement and childlike behaviour, â€Å"pooh†. When talking to Helmer Nora is manipulative, she uses his nicknames on herself in order to please Helmer, â€Å"squanderbird†. She is scared of Helmer (as a father figure he may punish her), therefore accepting anything he says; â€Å"Very well, Torvald. As you say†. She is Flirtatious and ‘plays with his coat buttons’ in order to get what she wants. Nora’s domination in the conversation with Mrs Linde and her use of repetition of the word ‘I’ shows that she is in a sense showing off and trying to be superior in front of Miss Linde. We see this in Act One when she meets with Mrs Linde; â€Å"I too have done something to be happy and proud about. It was I who saved Torvald’s life†. Nora is trying to gain respect from her friend by revealing a secret that she thinks will illustrate her practical side, showing that she is a supportive wife and has also had to face troubles. â€Å"Years from now, when I am no longer pretty†, Nora keeps the secret from her husband to maintain status quo. She will tell him in the future when she is no longer pretty and she will need to gain his respect through other means than playing games and dressing up. Ibsen uses Prosodic features: fast tempo, emotional; in order for us to know that that here Nora is erratic. In Nora’s two long speeches, on pages thirty six and thirty seven we learn more about her character through her use of language.

Brief History of Istanbul Essay

Evidences obtained from archaeological remains indicate that people began to inhabit the proximities of contemporary Istanbul for approximately thousands of years ago. At about 5000 B. C. , a thick and sprawling population of individuals inhabited the fertile grounds of Istanbul. The Greek people all the way from Megara and Miletus started to rest upon the soils situated along the coasts of the Black Sea as well as the Bosporus back in the latter years of eight century B. C. The year 660 B. C. witnessed the colonization of Byzantium by Byzas, the founder of the colony whose origins trace to Megarian roots. As expected, the name of the colony was patterned after his name. Due to the strategic location of Byzantium, it easily gained dominance over the region in terms of economy which eventually led to the attention of numerous would-be conquerors. Along the path of the Golden Horn, Byzantium was founded which bestowed it with the most suitable harbour all-over the region. The agricultural prosperity of Byzantium can be largely attributed to the abundance of fish as well as the surrounding countryside which was fertile enough to support plants for agriculture. Next to Byzantium, a safe harbour was efficiently provided for by the inlet of the Golden Horn which was near Bosporus. This area was considered as a major maritime route back in those times as it linked the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea. Byzantium eventually found itself struggling amidst the powers trying to conquer and dominate over the city—Persians, Greeks, Spartans and Athenians all drew their swords and took away lives for the sake of taking the city under their control. Such was the major importance of Byzantium during those times where its prosperity was seemingly beyond imagination. Even the Gauls attacked the city during the third century and in 202 B. C. the city sought the help and protection from Rome after being taken over by Macedonians. Eventually, the city was absorbed as a vital part of the Roman empire back in 73 B. C. During 196 A. D. , the city was caught on the wrong side after the creation of a power struggle in the Roman empire. As economically powerful as Byzantium may seem, it was not able to respond and resist the struggle which eventually trickled down the capabilities of the cities as it paid dearly. A large number of the residents were murdered as well as a significant portion of Byzantium was obliterated through the leadership of the Roman emperor Septimus Severus. Apparently, the Rman emperor had to rebuild the entire city starting off with the ruins as the wake of the power struggle. In the process, Byzantium was able to manage itself and continue to progress amidst threats and occurrences of civil wars as well as rebellions which smothered all-over the Roman empire through the many years to follow. However, Constantine I routed his foe, emperor Licinius, on September 18, 324. Constantine I was able to unify the broad territory of the Roman empire and made it follow his leadership. The Roman empire eventually made Byzantium as the prime capital of the region which extended to as far as three continents. Byzantium eventually gained a new name—Constantinople—after being briefly known as the New Rome named in honor of Constantine who was the first Roman ruler to embrace the doctrines of Christianity. During its time, Constantinople gained much reputation and wealth making it one of the world’s most economically advanced cities. The city was almost untouchable in status, having the power to dictate the doctrines of the Christian religion and to amass huge amounts of wealth up until the eleventh century. As the meeting points between the East and the West became largely attributed to Constantinople, it was no surprise that all roads were now focused on the wealthy city of Constantine. In 395 A. D. the whole of the Roman Empire was divided into the West and the East especially after the death of Theodosius. The Eastern Roman Empire adopted Constantinople as its central city or capital which was later referred to as the Byzantine Empire as a reminder of its brilliant past. Through the course of time, Constantinople further advanced as the core of the Greek Orthodox Christian realm. With its immense financial resources, the wealth of the Byzantine Empire gave it the capacity to transform Constantinople as a beautiful city far beyond compare. The splendour and majesty of Constantinople is perhaps owed to the well-paid architects who designed majestic churches and splendid palaces as well as artists and sculptors also contributed a large fraction of the city’s aesthetic transformation. One notable structure ever to be erected is the hippodrome which could hold more than a hundred thousand spectators. Eventually, the walls of the city were further built into a seemingly impenetrable protective layer as threats of invasion from rivalling forces never dwindled. Almost half million citizens inhabited Constantinople under the rule of Emperor Justinian from 527 to 565 A.  D. The Emperor took full control of the creation of some of Constantinople’s most majestic buildings which include the Haghia Sophia, one of the largest churches during the height of the prosperity of Constantinople. The Byzantine empire’s capital reached its full blom under the helm of Emperor Justinian. Even though Constantinople continued to supplement its wealthy advancement with protective measures, enemies from the outside were inevitably attracted to the splendour of the city. A few years after, the city was devastated with a plague in 542 A. D. which claimed the lives of three of every five citizens. This, unfortunately, brought the beginning of the city’s fall. As the city weakened in terms of its population both in size and strength, the enemies of Constantinople took the opportunity to besiege the city. Apparently, the enemies were unable to successfully conquer the city as the walls of Constantinople proved impenetrable. Attacks on the city mounted between the seventh and eleventh century A. D. which include forces from Persian Sassanids, Bulgars, Avars, Russians, and Muslim Arabs. At the time of the Fourth Crusade, the Latins were able to break the walls of Constantinople and captured the capital of the Byzantine Empire in 1204 A.  D until 1261 less than a century of captivity when the Byzantine forces reclaimed the capital. At the height of captivity, however, Constantinople was greatly diminished in terms of wealth and infrastructure as the invading forces plundered precious jewels and any other item they deemed were of sufficient value. The entire population diminished to half a hundred thousand during that time, and the citizens suffered greatly from famine. In 1396, the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople and built a fort on the Asian side of the Bosporus Sea in order to hinder aid from reaching the city. However, the capital would not fall for a few more years. On the 29th day of May, the Ottoman leader Mehmed was able to tear down the city walls and penetrate the city which ultimately signalled the fall of the era of Constantinople’s Christian church and the commencement of Muslim rule over the land. Apparently, the Muslims transformed the Haghia Sophia into a Muslim temple. In 1457, the capital of the Byzantine Empire was already known as Istanbul which later became the central point of the Ottoman Empire. Mehmed began to repopulate the city after the siege and within a few years time, Istanbul gained a considerable increase in population, roughly amounting to approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Ottoman Istanbul was able to achieve its peak during the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent, and perhaps the most notable buildings ever to be erected during those times, roughly amounting to 300 buildings, were the creations of chief architect Sinan. These efforts to restructure Ottoman Istanbul were significant as it signalled the dawning of a new Istanbul, one which is uniquely Ottoman in identity. Throughout time, Ottoman Istanbul opened its doors to the outside world in order to obtain a harmonious relationship with the other cities and states. This resulted to the expansion of the city’s population, now having a mixture of different races such as Jews, Christians, Armenians and other citizens. Influence on Ottoman Istanbul rule was apparently being influenced by many different forces from these races. Eventually, Istanbul became influenced with the modernization of the world. Europeans began to build a railroad system which connects the whole continent with Istanbul by the 1870s. As a result, the Ottoman empire became placed under the debt of European powers. These would later result to power struggles from within the empire, complicated all the more by the struggling influences from the Europeans to whom they were indebted with. In consequence, these developments in the Ottoman empire especially in Istanbul uring the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries would signal the downfall of the Ottoman empire and would mark the commencement of the Turkish Republic. Today, Istanbul remains as a fervent reminder of how a city once so powerful became so absorbed into the desire for power which led to its own subjugation and diminishment of power in the following years.

Faculty empowerment and the changing university environment Research Paper - 1

Faculty empowerment and the changing university environment - Research Paper Example As per traditional system of teaching, the duty of the teacher confined to the teaching process alone. However, the responsibilities of the current teachers are much more than teaching alone. Current teachers are perceived as leaders rather than mere teachers. Current teachers guide the students towards the target by adopting different strategies. Since the students have different abilities, it is difficult for the teachers to use a standardized way of teaching. The teacher should change his/her strategies based on the requirement of each students. In other words, current teaching strategies are student centered rather than teacher centered. Most of the teachers are unaware of these changes happening in the academic world and empowerment is the only way to educate teachers about their changing roles in the schools and colleges. â€Å"Educational leaders must evolve to meet the needs of both students and faculty because, faculty members struggle with changing curricula, non-tradition al learning environments and new technology. They need their leaders to assist them with the transitions† (Arenas et al, 2009). Science and technology have developed a lot over the last few decades and the effects of these developments can be witnessed everywhere. Educational sector is one area which undergone drastic changes as a result of the advancements in science and technology.

Cross Cultural Cummunication Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Cross Cultural Cummunication - Movie Review Example Hence, it would not be wrong to say that culture happens to be an integral aspect of the vantage point from which a person views, interprets and understands the world. An individual shapes one’s roles and relationships in a social setup in the light of the dominant cultural influences that one subscribes to. Even, in the current times when the world is getting diverse, it is astonishing to acknowledge that it is quiet impossible to separate a person from the culture in which one is born and brought up (Irvine 64). Therefore, culture is the lens through which an individual perceives the things and ideas. Yet, the thing is that the relationship between an individual and the culture one owes loyalty to happens to be quiet confusing. If on the one side the culture helps a person to adapt to the society in which one is born, on the other side it really makes it difficult to adapt to and adjust to the societies which have a different culture. Hence, in a way an individual happens to be both the beneficiary as well as the victim of culture. In the light of these facts the video under consideration does present many relevant and practical ideas regarding culture, how the varied cultures tend to differ from one another and as to what can people do to adjust to cultures that are different and foreign. The message conveyed by the video that in the current times when the varied cultures could not help being influenced by each other owing to the globalized trading of goods and services, influence of technologies like the internet and the ease of travel made possible by air travel, culture still continues to play a vital role in the human interactions, is indeed true and important. People do feel proud of the culture in which they are born and really appreciate if the individuals from other cultures do recognize their cultural peculiarities and traits (Allen 4). In the light of this fact the definition of culture given by this video that culture is, â€Å"A pattern o f learned and shared human behavior embodied in thought, speech and action transmitted to succeeding generations through the usage of tools, language and abstract thought† is indeed true and relevant. It is indeed an undeniable fact that the relationship between an individual and one’s culture happens to be complex in the sense that it is very ancient, unavoidable and to a large extent necessary to help a person adjust and adapt to the society in which one is born. One simply cannot deny one’s culture. The best option is always to accept and understand the culture in which one is born. This goes a long way in advancing a person’s understanding of other cultures as well. The further information conveyed by the video as to the associated important aspects of a culture that are values, attitudes and beliefs indeed goes a long way in enabling an individual understand as to what culture actually is and what does it practically involve. As per the video, values do represent the actual conscience of a particular culture and are an important guiding influence as to how the people in a culture think and behave. Attitudes affiliate to the emotional makeup of a particular culture and determine as to how people in a specific culture think about and react to particular people, places or things. Beliefs associate with the

How best to improve competition in the banking market Essay

How best to improve competition in the banking market - Essay Example This is simply because an increase in competition in the banking industry leads to a decrease in the bank’s soundness. Increased competition among banks will most likely lead to availability of a larger quantity of credit hence increased market power is needed to increase the bank’s incentives thus a higher quality of the pool of applicants. An increased completion in the banking sector has a direct effect on the growth potential and the market structure of other sectors of the economy. This therefore calls for a regulated completion and application of best ways in enhancing this competition. This paper will focus on these best ways of improving competition in the banking market. Discussion The best ways of improving competition in the banking industry is by carrying out structural reforms in the financial sector. This reforms can be carried out with the aim of restructuring distressed banks and also cleaning up non-performing assets in order to restore the viability an d profitability of these banks. This structural reforms would include privatization as well as both fiscal and monetary operations. The competitive conditions in the industry can be increased by removal of restrictions regarding foreign and domestic market entries and also privatization of state-owned banks which leads to increased number of commercial banks operating in the extremely concentrated and inefficient markets. (Beck & Fuchs, 2004) Privatization of the state-owned banks increases competition and efficiency in the banking industry since it leads to an increase in both foreign and domestic participation in the sector. According to a study by Beck, Cull and Jerome (2005), privatized banks performed worse than those banks that are privately owned before privatization but improved significantly after them being privatized. It also increases bank and financial performance significantly after divesture. Therefore, the restructuring of reforms in the banking sector leads to an in crease in the establishment of more banks hence increase in healthy competition. This is promoted by the fact that relaxation of regulations in the sector allows more banks to enter in to the market without any of the set restriction being disabled. (Beck, Cull and Jerome, 2005) Loosening of the entry barriers in to the industry can increase competition in the sector without affecting stability. This can be done by reducing the switching costs, which can be one in many ways. Switching costs are those incurred by consumers when they switch from one financial institution to another. These switching costs can be reduced by taking measure to ensure that consumers have adequate education and information in financial literacy in regard to alternative financial institutions. This will ensure that the consumers have the ability to compare various price offers by different institutions hence promoting willingness for the consumers to switch form one institution to another thus more a competi tive market. (Bikker & Haaf, 2002) These switching costs can also be reduced by developing a switching pack and making the switching steps easier hence reducing the switching burden. This can be done through a self-regulatory code between banks to help customers switch easily hence increase in competition as banks strive to keep their customers. Developing a common financial information sharing platform i.e. modifying the regulations to ensure privacy is maintained and allowing the customer form credit earning

Health Care Finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Health Care Finance - Essay Example This act aims at punishing all those who: give false certifications or false information, pretend to be in need of medical necessity or self referrals which allow a physician to gain money through referring a patient to a facility in which he has a monetary interest. All matters like these are presented to the False Claims Act who intervenes through several ways: acting as a plaintiff, allowing the realtor to prosecute on behalf of the US government or dismissing the complaint if it is against government policy. An instance like this date back to 1998 when the Assistant Secretary of Legislation was asked to review the healthcare department as incorrect billing had led to a loss of $6 billion. (Morris) Instances like these can also be presented and placed under the False Claims Act. In 2005 the dramatic deficits made by the government forced the Deficit Reduction Act to allow the Congress to decide that the Centers of Medicaid and its services(CMS) were to establish the Medicaid Integrity Plan. This plan was created to suit two purposes: to use contractors who would identify overpayments and audit claims and to provide support to combat fraud and abuse (HHS.gov). The most efficient manner for eradicating frauds is to deploy precautionary measures to avoid even its initiation.

Review of Three Ethical Theories Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Review of Three Ethical Theories - Essay Example According to this theory, individuals are seen as rational and utility maximizing entities. Several business decisions today are based on this principle; that is, the correct business decision is one that maximizes the net benefit to the society. Thus, the decision which is in the best interests of the society is one that maximizes the net benefit to the society. The founder of traditional Utilitarianism, Jeremy Bentham, argued that best and most valuable judgments are those that are based on objective considerations (Scarre, 1996). Thus, the benefits and costs of each public policy should be weighed and then the policy should be executed only if the benefits outweigh the costs. The theory inherently assumes that the costs and benefits can be measured (Scarre, 1996). Thus, the value of the costs can be subtracted from the value of benefits. The theory does not aim at maximizing an individual’s utility. It aims at maximizing the net benefits to the society. The provision of pub lic and merit goods is based on this theory. It is consistent with morality since it takes into account ‘everyone’s’ interests in equal amount. ... According to him, each individual have a moral right to this and that this moral right of individuals translates into duties for other individuals. The first foundation of this imperative is based on the principles of universibility and reversibility (Butler, 2008). Thus, individuals must ask themselves how they would feel if other treated them the same way and how would they feel if everyone did the same. Thus, according to Kant, the immoral decisions and actions were those that one wouldn’t want for oneself (Butler, 2008). The second imperative states that individuals ought not to be treated merely as means; that is, their capacity to choose freely for themselves must also be developed. This clearly demonstrates that while the Utilitarians imply an ‘economically rational’ justification for actions, Rights Ethics correctly captures the human values and goes beyond the traditional cost-benefit analysis. Thus, according to Utilitarians, individuals could be deprive d of their right to liberty simply because the net benefit isn’t maximized (Jeurissen, 2007). Hence, Rights Ethics takes a step forward by respecting not only the positive but also the negative rights of individuals ( that is, the freedom from coercion). Thus, the Rights Ethics many of the flaws associated with the Utilitarian view. Firstly, the utilitarian view simplistically assumes that all the consequences of an action can be quantitatively measured (Smart & Williams, 1973). This is not always the case. For instance, how could one assign a value to one’s life? Secondly, it deals insufficiently with rights, morals and justice (Smart & Williams, 1973). As outlined in the following

Business as a bridge between social and economic development Assignment

Business as a bridge between social and economic development - Assignment Example A solution to this problem has risen in the form of business , and the practices involved with it that have strived not only to improve the financial gains of the individual behind it, but has also been given a social responsibility in the region it is located at as well (John and Dan 60). Business can be used as a bridge so to speak to close the gap formed by the differences in these two aspects. The social responsibility that is involved with business ensures that it is able to do this effectively and include a number of activities that technically do not hold any financial gain for the company/organization but better the lives of those living in the area in which it is located (Luis and David 23). Some of these responsibilities include the provision of employment to individuals who residing in the area. When a company sets up in a given region, it is expected to offer the work available to those living within that area instead of outsourcing thus providing financial stability for the members of that society. The improved financial conditions also lead to better standards of living as well which happens to be a social goal (Richard 51). Another method business uses to bridge the gap between social and economic goals are the environmental responsibilities that it takes on. Business do this through a number of ways such as ensuring that they do not pollute the area they are working from or their surrounding areas such as rivers and lakes. This is usually an aspect when a business handles the production of its own goods, and there are factories involved. Businesses can also make generous contributions to movements that are involved in the conservation of the environment if they are not directly involved in the activities. The donations made by the business can go a long way in improving the state of the environment in that area leaving it for the

Project #4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Project #4 - Essay Example It commands the movement of the cursor on the cursor on the screen and also issues commands to the computer. The mouse can either be attached to the computer using a cable or can be connected through a wireless connection technology (Tyler, 2008). It is not hard to use since it contains only two buttons and a scrolling wheel. It is very accurate since the pointer is moved to the exact point to be selected. The movement of the mouse is minimal as compared to the movement that the cursor makes on the screen. It is, therefore, effective and increases the speed of work. It is economical on space since it requires a slight space to control the cursor on the screen. It is an input device that is similar to a mouse and is used to move the cursor on the screen. Its visual aspect is similar to that of a mouse, but it operates in a stagnant position. The cursor is moved by rotating ball using two fingers or the palm (Tyler, 2008). It also has buttons that send instructions to the computer. The trackball is easy to use since moving the cursor is done by simply rotating the ball. However, the balls rotation makes it hard to select fine details, and it may waste a lot of time in such a situation. Its accuracy is as good as that of a mouse. The space required for its operation is equal to the space it occupies even when not in use. The trackball does not require any movement in order to move the cursor and is hence economical in space. The touch pad is a pressure sensitive pointing device that is mainly found in laptops and modern external keyboards. It is a stationary pointing device just like the trackball. In real senses, it does not occupy any space since it is mounted on either a laptop or a keyboard. It is very fast in selecting items on the screen and can be efficiently used even when dealing with fine details. Its ease of use depends on the sensitivity of the touch pad. It is an input device with the shape of a pen

Analyzing Advertisements Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Analyzing Advertisements - Essay Example Tommy Hilfiger and Guess? by Marciano are two high-end clothing lines that use a strong image and theme to sell their brands, both of them memorable, but both completely different from one another. In this way, both Tommy Hilfiger and Guess? become strongly associated with their respective themes, which creates their image and brands as distinctive and compelling. The first ad campaign is for Tommy Hilfiger. One campaign is a commercial for the 2011 spring line (tommyhilfiger). The other campaign that will be analyzed for Hilfiger is his ad campaign for the fall of 2010 (AndreDouglasFanClub). The Tommy Hilfiger ad for his spring 2011 line features a fake family of Hilfigers. Each member of the family identifies themselves by name, and, after they each introduce themselves, there is a little girl who says â€Å"and we are the Hilfigers.† The â€Å"family† features two black men, a dark man who appear Hispanic or Italian, several WASPY women, two men with longish hair who look like 1970s throwbacks, and two children – a boy with crazy curly hair, and a young girl dressed in a coat. The ad unmistakably attempts to tie these people together as a family, and a wealthy family at that. The cast of characters are seen throughout the ad, in different, stylish clothing that usually marries something super casual, like a striped gol f shirt, under something more formal, like a blazer. They are unmistakably at a country club, as they are playing games like ping pong and tennis. Meanwhile, there are bikinied women around playing the games with the Hilfigers. There is also another man, unidentified, who has a high afro and is joining in the fun. There are even two dogs, two basset hounds, presumably the family dogs. Throughout the commercial, new people are introduced, and they all have the same look - casual, mixed with formal elements, usually wearing sunglasses. Blazers with with a crisp white shirt mixed

Average & Range Essay Example for Free

Average Range Essay Calculate X-Bar-Bar, R-Bar, and associated control limits using the data in the table above. Create X-Bar†¢R (Average Range) Control Charts from the data in the table above. Discuss notable out-of-control conditions displayed in the completed X-Bar†¢R (Average Range) Control Charts. Only consider points outside the control limits. Do not consider runs, set of points within certain zones, and so forth. If the conditions you note could be defined as assignable conditions, and they are removed from the process, then what will happen to the X-Bar†¢R Control Chart? Remove the data related to the out-of-control points you observed from the original data, and recalculate new X-Bar-Bar, R-Bar, and associated control limits. Create new X-Bar†¢R (Average Range) Control Charts from your updated data. Discuss how the two sets of Control Charts are different. What has changed? The format of the case study should conform to the Publication Manual for the American Psychological Association (APA), 6th edition, for the title page and text. Citations and references are not required. A basic APA tutorial can be found in the Webliography, and a paper template can be found in Doc Sharing. The completed case study will be submitted to your Dropbox as an MS Word document. All graphics and charts will be a part of the Word document and submitted as a file. Documents authored in other applications such as WordPerfect or MS Works will not be accepted. This project is to be accomplished individually, and it will reflect the work of each student. All DeVry University policies are in effect, including the plagiarism policy. Late papers will not be accepted without prior permission.

Information systems and globalisation

Information systems and globalisation Task 2 Literature Review â€Å"Information systems and globalisation† The purpose of this literature review is to show how information systems relate to globalization and how different cultures affect the use of information systems. In this literature review, cultural diversity and their concerning issues, organisational behaviour, behaviours of individual at workplace due to globalization and what are the key elements for developing a truly global information systems will be discussed. Globalization affects information systems in a lot of aspects like the use of internet by general public in the world, global e-mail providers like hotmail and yahoo connects the whole world together. Information systems has big role in globalization by influencing different cultures through internet, where big economies and developed countries benefit the most out of this. Globalization has revolutionized internal management. It has also made easier the interaction between countries, regions and continents, thus contributing to profitability. It is the private sectors philosophy that propelled efforts to utilize every means, including information technology, to make companies survive, even the biggest and the most powerful company in the world. Global economic integration is growing rapidly, although the precise implications of this growth are subject to debate. The acceleration of this growth has been facilitated in part by information and communication technologies which are supporting organizations that span national and regional cultures. These cultural differences then become intra-organizational differences. As a consequence, information systems reflecting different cultural assumptions must interact effectively. Beyond the core of Western technical development and diffusion lie a number of economies of growing significance subject to a parallel development, modified by successive inward infusions of technology from the west. In North East Asia a number of economies have been relatively late adopters of many facets of office automation because of a range of cultural differences, not least their use of non-Roman characters. Haywood (1995) outlines the complexity of the development of the western alphabets and Shepard ( 1993), writing from direct experience, sets out the technical complexities of networking in an environment that must move beyond the ASCII standard. The situation is in some ways comparable to the technical handicap suffered by Western Europe before the adoption of Arabic numerals. Littleton and Yamsey (1978) emphasize the role of Arabic numerals in facilitating the emergence of the basis for western accounting practices during the fifteenth century. In conjunction with secular literacy, this technical innovation allowed a range of economic developments such as credit, capital and property rights to find expression in the development of written accounts. In North East Asia computer support for numerical and scientific tasks may have reached levels comparable with the west, but the lack of support for non- Roman text so reduced any advantages over established manual systems that office automation has been selective and partial. Such countries have made extensive and effective use of a subset of office automation technologies such as fax and telephone that do not incorporate the requirement of a specific alphabet. Castells and Hall (1994) argue that the development of the fax was driven by a Japanese desire to promote a technology which did not disadvantage them over western users. The sophisticated bit-mapping technology able to deal with ideographic text has emerged relatively late in the process of global diffusion of desktop computing. This means that these increasingly significant players in the world economy are operating in a technical context and to sets of standards, official and de facto, which have been shaped by outside cul tural assumptions. There is a cultural dimension to the established practice and expectations within organizations which imparts its own dynamic to the process of change and development. Grounded, longitudinal observation offers access to this dynamic (Badham et al. 1995; Glaser and Strauss; 1967), however, a complex issue has been further confused by the variety of ways in which culture has been formulated by different writers on organizations. One conception of organizational culture has been used to explain the relative success of individual organizations and entrepreneurs (Peters and Waterman, 1982). Other writers refer to culture in terms of national differences in social and economic organization. Latin, Anglo-Saxon and traditional cultures are reflected in distinctive organizational types identified in studies examined by Lammers and Hickson (1979). Turner (1971) describes industrial subcultures which can be identified across individual organizations, and are distinctive from the larger society. Eldridge and Crombie (1974) define organizational culture as characteristic for individual organizations while Strauss et al. (1973) describe a range of cultures within a single organization. Thompson (1967) utilized the concept of an organizational constituency capable of entering into coalition with other constituencies in order to promote its interest. Such a conception allows the formal elements of an organization to be related to the informal communication and negotiation which often modifies, or in extreme cases frustrates, the intentions of management. It also allows consideration of intra-organizational variations in culture, arising from these differences of interest and experience. The rapid growth in desk-top and end user computing during the 1980s brought about a number of profound changes in the character of organizational i nformation systems. The dramatic reduction of cost and consequently wider availability of computing resources led to a process of commoditisation, initially of the hardware platforms courtesy of the open architecture of the de facto IBM standard clone, then of the operating systems and increasingly of the basic components of business software. Hu (1992) presents several criteria by which we can judge the nationality of the global organizations. According to him truly global organizations are still to emerge and the geographical location and scope of organizations still favours the country of origin, however several prominent organizations might be known as bi-national. Hu suggests that organizations based in relatively small economic countries might locate more of their resources externally, although, management and control is likely to indicate which are the origin locations of the organizations. With some exceptions, the majority of employment is in the home country, and foreigners are not likely to be represented by the organizations. Nobes and Parker (1985) presents a number of taxonomies of different techniques in accounting practice across the globe, which relate zones of influence both to the development of modern accounting in Scotland and England, its spread over other Anglophone cultures and the effect of alternative models on the emergence of spheres of influence. This degree of institutional changes suggests that regional differences in practices will continue to let go technical internal operations for some time to come. Burris (1993) plots the emergence of a technocratic frame in Western development from the enlightenment through the industrial revolution to Taylorist scientific management to Veblens â€Å"soviet of technicians†. She argues that the technocratic rationality is the dominant paradigm for workplace organization, polarizing the internal labour market and favouring abstract diagnostic and technical activities. This paradigm carries with it a range of implicit cultural assumptions, which imply that the global diffusion of western technology is a substantively rational and inevitable process. The technocratic perspective sees cultural variation as either irrational or insignificant and not as a resource. Technocracy is gender and culture blind and incapable of acknowledging cultural differences, understanding of which is critical to smooth inter-operability. Instead a technocratic perspective sees a smooth migration of older techniques to less industrialized countries, while the cor e economies refine advanced technologies. There is already considerable evidence against such a simplistic view and Burris suggests that Reich (1992) demonstrates a better recognition of global implications for core economies, although still exhibiting a bias towards the expert sector. This bias allows optimistic interpretations of the impact of technologies by focusing on the beneficiaries within the workforce, rather than the affected workforce as a whole. IT has played a significant role in the economic and social processes of globalisation. Technology does not determine social and organizational change. The spread of ICT around the world does not result in universal patterns of organizational structure and activities. The World Wide Web is only a few years old and has witnessed explosive growth in terms of the number of people connected and the amount of information available on it. It is now possible to make available an enormous amount of information to anyone with access to the Net and, increasingly, to carry out a variety of transactions from filling in and sending forms to ordering and paying for goods and services on-line. We need to harness the potential of the technologies available. But it is not simply a matter of creating web-based content: the content has to be useful, it must be easy to access and updated regularly. We also need to take special care to ensure that use of IT does not create a new class of haves and have n ots. While, on the one hand, we increase the use of computers, we must also ensure that they are accessible and functional in the rural or remoter areas. This is extremely important because the technology makes it possible for a person in the remotest of areas to have access to the same information base on the internet as someone located at the heart of the most developed cities. However, if the rural communications and networking infrastructure as well as ‘information booths are not put in place, the technology is of no use to the people living in those areas. Internet and intranets are the important trends in new technology. The recent advantages in information technology have opened up opportunities to provide basic government services to a much broader segment of the population with optimal quality at the desired time, place and cost. Some of the state governments have taken initiative to develop â€Å"one-stop shops† to deliver a host of services to the citizens, Technology is not culturally neutral but it is developed in a cultural context and in the case of information rich countries, IT applications carry that cultural context within their designs. Applications of culturally developed systems, such as office and management systems assume the users compliance with the design culture, but this inevitably leads to cultural clashes when the systems are applied outside the design context. The idea that Information Technology (IT) can be an enabling force, not only for business and trade but also for government, has now been widely accepted. However, a cursory glance at the existing initiatives in developing countries seems to suggest a mixed picture. With the exception of several worthwhile utilization of IT in particular sectors, IT applications seem to have had no remarkable effect on the manner in which citizens benefit from the services of the government. Against this backdrop, the efforts of the developing countries to harness Information Technology seem like a major initiative to deliver an improved administration. Todays trade is highly dependent on Information Systems. Information is the most globalized of goods services. There is a low cost to transport information. Information work is readily traded. A global information system supports the operations and decision making of an enterprises multi-country strategy. A global information system supports the operations and decision making of a person over space and time. It amplifes attenuates information exchanges to free up conscious attention References: Haywood, T. (1995), Info-Rich Info-Poor: Access and Exchange in the Global Information Society, Bowker-Saur, London. Shepard, J. (1993), â€Å"Islands in the (data)stream: language, character codes, and electronic isolation in Japan†, in Harasim, L.M., Global Networks: Computers and International Communication, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. Littleton, A.C. and Yamsey, B.S (1978), Studies in the History of Accounting, Arno Press, New York, NY. Castells, M. and Hall, P. (1994), Technopoles of the World: The Making of 21st Century Industrial Complexes, Routledge, London. Badham, R., Couchman, P. and Little, S. (1995), â€Å"Getting smart: developing an action research approach to the integrated management of technical and organizational innovation†, Journal of Human Systems Management, Vol. 14 No. 1. Peters, T.J. and Waterman, R.H. Jr (1982), In Search of Excellence, Warner, New York, NY. Lammers, C.J. and Hickson, D.J. (1979), â€Å"A cross-national and cross-institutional typology of organizations†, in Lammers, C.J. and Hickson, D.J. (Eds), Organizations Alike and Unlike: International and Inter-institutional Studies in the Sociology of Organizations, Routledge Kegan Paul, London. Turner, G. (1971), Exploring the Industrial Subculture, Macmillan, London. Eldridge, J.E.T. and Crombie, A.D. (1974), A Sociology of Organizations, Allen Unwin, London. Glaser, B. and Strauss, A.L. (1967), The Discovery of Grounded Theory, Aldine, Chicago, IL. Thompson, J.D. (1967), Organizations in Action, McGraw-Hill, NJ. Percy-Smith, Janie (1996), Downloading Democracy? Information and Communication Technologies in Local Politics. Policy and Politics 24 (1): 43-56. Perry, James L. and Kenneth L. Kraemer (1993), The Implications of Changing Technology. In Frank J. Thompson, ed. Revitalizing State and Local Public Service: Strengthening Performance, Accountability and Citizen Confidence. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass: 225-245. Mankin, Don, Cohen, Susan G., and Tora K. Bikson (1996), Teams and Technology: Fulfilling the Promise of the New Organization. Boston: Harvard Business School.

Alternatives to Custodial Sentences for Female Offenders

Alternatives to Custodial Sentences for Female Offenders This dissertation questions the increase in the female prison population in recent years. It then goes on to outline some reasons against imprisoning women, looking at the alternatives to custodial sentences, and the past and upcoming policy. It suggests that alternatives should be considered over and above custodial sentences as these may be more appropriate for the needs of women. (2) Introduction In the last few years there has been a widespread concern for the numbers of women that are imprisoned. Between 1993 and 2003, the female population increased by almost 200% . Many have concerns about this, for example, The Howard League for Penal Reform published its submission to the United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention, expressing serious concern at the increase in the use of prison for women and the added problems they face in custody. The Howard League for Penal Reform research shows that 4,394 women were detained in 18prisons in England and Wales on 4 March 2005, almost treble the number held in 1993. The number of women experiencing prison over the year has increased by almost 3,000 as most women are sent to prison for only short periods. The number of women on remand has also increased by about a third. This has meant that women’s imprisonment has come under the spotlight for both the public and academics alike. In response to the growing concerns for the unsuitability of custodial sentences for the majority of women there have been attempts to find alternatives to imprisonment that are more appropriate. There has been much concern about the greater numbers of women being imprisoned for several reasons. In the past there has been a reluctance to see punishment as gender specific. As Carlen (2002:3) points out: Theories of punishment are usually expected to be gender-neutral: the state punishes, the citizen submits and the legitimacy of the punishment is debated according to the jurisprudential principles of the time.’ But recently, for example, there has been increasing recognition that the criminal profile of women prisoners is different to that of their male counterparts, and the rehabilitative needs of these women are also different to imprisoned men. In addition the needs of the children of some of these incarcerated women are beginning to be recognised. This dissertation will look at some of these issues that are of growing concern, firstly outlining the main reasons why the female prison population has increased in recent years, and then looking at how custodial sentences are inappropriate for the needs of women. It will then go on to consider a few alternatives to custody that may be more appropriate. In doing so it is necessary to take a look at the policy in this area to establish the problems and make recommendations for the future. Pat Carlen puts forward some questions that are asked each time women’s imprisonment comes under the spotlight: Is it necessary to sends many women to prison? Are women treated differently to men by the police, the courts and the prisons? Why are so many poor, black and mentally ill women in prison? And so on (Carlen, 1998: 2). This dissertation will attempt to explore some of these questions and the issues that surround them. It aims to show that there is a vast disparity between the present system of women’s imprisonment and the needs of the women being sent to them, and in doing so will examine the alternatives to custodial sentences for women. It is important to consider gender differentials at this point. Carlen (2002: 7) puts forward the question: ‘Are women punished differently to men?’ and in response suggests that there are six main bodies of literature that attempt to answer this question. Firstly, there is the historical literature which focuses on the quantity and quality of women’s punishments; Secondly, sociological literature which places the experience of women’s punishment within the wider framework of control, arguing that women appear less frequently in the courts as they are ‘more closely constrained by informal controls of family, factory, fashion, men and medicine’ (Carlen, 2002: 7). Socio-legal studies endeavour to establish whether women are sentenced more or less harshly than men; criminological studies attempt to ascertain and assess the quality of the confinement experienced by imprisoned women. Also a campaigning literature is identified by Carlen, which argues fore variety of reasons that women receive a harsher punishment than that of their male counterparts; and, the literature that has responded to this criticism, for example that provided by the official Home Office Inspectorates. It can be ascertained from the wide review of this literature that firm evidence that supports the fact that women are more severely punished than men is difficult to find, as Carlen points out, ‘In sum, the findings of all this research and scholarship suggest that there is no strong statistical evidence to support claims that women are sentenced more harshly than men.’(Carlen, 2002: 7). In addition to this it would be awkward to ascertain the gender-bias as separate from the bias relating to class or race. However, based on the demographic characteristics of imprisoned women, Carlen (2002: 8) argues that although the majority of women are treated more leniently by the criminal justice system (for example see Lederman and Gels Thorpe, 1997, quoted in Carlen, 2002: 8), certain women, in particular those ‘who have been brought up in the states institutional care, have transient lifestyles, have their own children already in state guardianship, are living out with family and male-related domesticity, or are members of the of ethnic minority groups-are more likely to proceed through the criminal justice system and end up in prison.’ Although this argument does not contend with the argument that women are treated more leniently with men, it complements the argument of Lederman and Gels Thorpe: The likelihood that female offenders may overall receive more lenient treatment than males does not rule out the possibility that individual women receive unusually harsh treatment.’ (Lederman and Gels Thorpe, 1994: 4) As can be seen from the following chapter, gender influences are evident within all aspects of crime, criminality and the criminal justice system. Gender stereotypes can inform decisions as to whether person has committed a crime, whether they should be prosecuted and found guilty for a crime, and indeed, gender affects how a person might be punished and how this may affect the criminal and society. Criminal law tends to render women as passive victims, and when they appear as criminal they can either treated as irrational, acting under external factors or as unfeminine monsters (Nicolson, 2000:25). Despite this, it’s only recently that these gender dimensions have been considered, as Nicolson points out, ‘Traditionally criminal law has been analysed and taught as if it’s rules are gender blind and as if the gender of both the victims and perpetrators of crime is irrelevant’(from Nicolson and Bobbing’s, 2002: 1). This gender-blind approach to crime and the criminal justice system has now been recognised and analysed by feminists and criminologists alike. Fox (2002) urges that it is crucial for both feminist scholars and students of criminal law to engage with the issue of punishment, as this offers a key to understanding substantive law issues, in the past, she suggests, literature has focussed on women who kill, for example, but has failed to put forward a suggestion for whether these women should be punished and how. This paper will attempt to redress this imbalance. (3) Explanations of the Increase in the Female Prison Population In looking at the explanations underlying the steep increase in women’s imprisonment in recent years, the study undertaken by Carlen(1998) offers some useful points to consider. She accumulated several opinions in her study which serve to add understanding. A female Prison Governor suggested that the number of prison sentences are higher despite no significant rise in the number of reported crime due to several reasons; firstly, she suggests that it could be andante-feminist approach that says, ‘well, if you women want equality, you’ve got to take it’; secondly, it could be due to the rising pressure on women in society to cope financially without a partner leading to more crime being committed; thirdly, she suggests, it could be that women in the past have been more likely to go down the route of being admitted to a mental hospital which has suffered cuts in funding. A Prison Officer put forward that women are still being sent to prison for trivial crimes, which is supported by prisoners comments. Carlen summarises the responses given as thus: (1) more women are committing violent crimes; (2) more women who would not have previously gone to prison are going due to increasing involvement with drugs; (3)more black women are going to prison so racism may be the key; or (4)prison is being used to incarcerate the same social categories for women that it always has – the destitute, the most obviously gender deviant, and the mentally disturbed – but the numbers of women presenting themselves in these categories have increased with growing economic inequality (Carlen, 1998: 51). Another explanation is that women are becoming more violent, indeed the proportion of female prisoners under sentence for crimes of violence against the person was indeed (at 20 per cent) only two present less than the proportion of male prisoners. Fletcher (1975, in Carlen, 1998: 52) supports this view: ‘It is undoubtedly the case that the level of convictions of violence against the person has increased among women.’ However, he also points out that, ‘the female prison population has †¦ risen steeply whilst serious convictions have actually fallen’; suggesting that this may be due to longer sentences being served. As will be seen later, it is much more likely that it is the increase in more punitive sentencing for trivial crimes that is more likely to offer an explanation. It is possible that racism is the key to increases in the female prison population, as the Home Office (1997) points out: In June 1996, there were 10,200 people from ethnic minorities in Prison Service establishments. Ethnic minorities accounted for 18percent of the male prison population and 24 per cent of the female population compared with 6 per cent of the male and female populations of England and Wales (From Carlen, 1998: 54). However, there may be other reasons underlying these numbers, and it’s impossible to disentangle issues of race, gender, and other forms of inequality. Unfortunately there is no time here to consider all the concerns that this issue deserves, except to say that it may be contributory factor to the increased numbers of imprisoned women, but this view is highly contentious. Carlen (1998: 54) suggests that when women are being considered for tougher sentence rather than a milder sentence, they may be escalated up the tariff towards the custodial end more quickly than a male purely because the range of non-custodial facilities for women is narrower. However, although all these concepts will serve in some way to increase the numbers of female offenders serving custodial sentences, the most likely and supported factor is the economic and social status of women: †¦ despite exaggerated claims about increasingly violent and addiction driven female offenders, it appears that there is consensus amongst most analysts and commentators that the steep increases in the numbers of women received into British Prisons in the1990’s can best be explained by the increased numbers of women in the social categories of economic need and social deprivation who have traditionally been more vulnerable to imprisonment, and by the increased punitiveness of the courts towards female offenders in general. (Carlen, 1998: 56) (4) Reasons Against Imprisoning Women The Feminist Response In looking at the feminist response to criminal justice for women, firstly it is important to look at the general models of punishment that exist today. Fox (2000: 51) points out that traditionally there are three main theories of punishment – retribution, deterrence and rehabilitation. The retribution model is concerned with the notion of vengeance, and balancing the punishment with the level of harm inflicted on the victim. Advocates of this ‘just desert’ approach(Clarkson and Keating ) claim that it ensures proportionality between crime and punishment, promises limited punishment, helps reduce sentencing disparity and protects rights by restoring due process. However this approach is open to criticism due to its lack of consideration of individual factors such as poverty, unemployment, inequality and gender, assuming that every individual is an autonomous member of society. Similarly, the deterrence model focuses on rational autonomous action through its aim of discouraging crime through the threat and example of punishment, which like the latter model does not take into account individual differences, including the responsibility held by criminals. Fox (2000: 53) suggests that the rehabilitation model appears more promising from a feminist perspective as it aims to secure conformity through inner positive motivation on the part of the individual(Clarkson and Keating ) and its focus on understanding rather than condemning the offender, through treatment. Although it has been debated as to whether this model can be characterised as punishment, but as Fox recognises, ‘treatment oriented approaches can involve punitive interventions under the guise of treatment’. The criticism of this approach is similar to that of incapacitation theory whish aims for protective sentencing. By imposing longer or more severe punishments thee criminal may become unable to commit more crimes. Fox discusses that because of the special privations which prison sentences may inflict on female prisoners, it this may have greater impact on women. Therefore it is suggested that a new rationale for punishment that differs from the traditional frameworks to encompass gender differences is needed. Howe takes the view that the definition of punishment needs to be expanded to incorporate broader social control mechanisms, son that it, ‘enables us to forge links between two critical projects: the masculinise one, of analysing the emergence of punishment regimes in the context of the States power to punish, and the feminist one, of mapping the differential impact of disciplinary power on lived female bodies.’(Howe, 1994, see footnote 5). This focus on the body as a means of criticising models of punishment is typical of some writers, for example, Wait who argues that the body is a vehicle for control, in regards to examples such as electronic tagging, the forced separation of parents from children and spouses from each other, as well as community service and probation orders that require the body to work in particular ways, he comments that: The pain inflicted upon it may be less direct, the mark it makes and traces leaves less visible; but the exercise of coercive discipline over the body and a recognition of the anguish it is capable of experiencing are still at the heart of punishment’(Wait, 1996, from Fox, 2000: 58). Fox puts forward that this can apply to other types of punishment too, namely, forced treatment for drug and alcohol dependency and the use of boot camps, chain gangs and capital punishment in the US. Focus on the body, she suggests, can make the diverse ways in which women are placed under surveillance, disciplined and punished more apparent, and that practices such as imprisoning pregnant women, handcuffing labouring women, separating mothers from their children and strip searching tend to force people to confront the reality of punishment. As can be seen a focus on the body can take forward feminist perspectives in its struggle against the patriarchal nature of the State’s criminal justice system. Although greater numbers of women continue to receive custodial sentences, proportionally more women offenders in both the US and Receive probation, or absolute or conditional charges. Pat Carlen(1985, quoted in Fox, 2000: 60) puts forward a potential reason for this: ‘†¦the majority of women †¦ in trouble are much more likely to be in receipt of medical, psychiatric or welfare regulation than caught up in the machinery of criminal justice, which accounts for the court’s readiness to require social and medical reports for female offenders, particularly where the offence is unnatural or violent’ The Specific Needs of Women This section will outline some of the identified needs of female offenders focussing on those needs associated with family and mental health issues. Family It could be argued that women’s identity as mothers is critical in sentencing practice. Fox (2000:62) argues that those women who conform to the traditional stereotype as mothers can more easily avoid being labelled as criminal, whilst conversely, women who do not conform to this stereotype compare unfavourably, and women who are judged to fails wives or mothers, such as young single women who commit offences as members as gangs, for example, are treated relatively harshly. This highlights how gender roles can have an effect on criminal procedure in general, and sentencing. The Home Office report offered by Lederman and Gels Thorpe confirm that this is the case, reporting that the degree to which a female offender conforms to traditional gender roles, especially regarding her marital status, is the most influential factoring how she is regarded by the courts. Therefore it seems that the discrimination faced by women in society carries over to the criminal justice system. Carlen (1998: 74) in her study looked at the different experience of women in prison compared to that of their male counter parts. She found that the most resounding response related to women’s role within the family both in terms of ideology and function. This was described mostly in terms of women’s role as mothers, although, also included their roles of primary care-giver to other family members, including the dependency that men had upon them. For example, male staff recognised that a powerful mix of biological ties, emotional bonds and family ideologies can affect a woman’s prison experience (Carlen, 1998:74). One respondent in particular commented that, in 99 per cent of cases when a man comes to prison he has the knowledge that his children are being looked after and the rent will be paid by the DSS, however women tend to lose their homes, and often their children to foster care. Another commented that the females have a closer bond to their children and it affects them far more. In regards to remand, one respondent suggested that, ‘If a woman has a baby while she is on remand in custody, social services will be contacted and the baby would be taken off her. She’s being denied the right to bond with that baby at such a vital stage†¦ Another problem that we have is that if they are sentenced we initiate the procedure for applying for a Mother and Baby Unit, but there are not enough mother and baby spaces for them to go to.’ (A Prison Officer, from Carlen, 1998: 79) Contemporary Criminal Justice policies can have a detrimental impact on families, in terms of both the impact of a mother’s imprisonment on their children and the impact upon the mothers. With the striking increase in numbers of women serving custodial sentences the effect that this can have on the children that a proportion of these women have needs to be taken into consideration. Ideology that contends with the view that female offenders do not deserve privileges such as regular contact with their children has a lack of regard of the fact that this also penalizes the children, Clarke (1995) refers to these children as the ‘unseen victims of a mother’s incarceration’. Although removing a child from the criminality associated with their mothers is often considered to be in the best interests of the child, this removals harmful in itself. Snyder-Joy and Carlo (1998), in their review of some of the research carried out that look at the effects of the child, found that incarcerating mothers may produce serious negative effects for the children. They found that the forcible separation and lack of close contact between mother and child may cause psychological and behavioural problems for the children, such as aggression, poor school performance, attention deficit, anger, poor social skills, depression, and sleep disruptions. In addition to this, children of incarcerated parents area risk of also ending up in the criminal justice system. In fact, Barnhill and Dresser’s 1991 research notes that, ‘children of inmates are five to six times more likely than their peers to become incarcerated themselves’ (Snyder-Joy and Carlo, 1998: 132). It can be hard to ascertain whether it is the actual imprisonment of mothers that has these effects, rather than say, the economic and social factors that may also affect their mothers, or the general way in which they have been brought up, however the research findings should not be disregarded and the potential effects of custodial sentences of mothers on children should certainly be considered when debating women’s imprisonment. Gabel (1992, taken from Snyder-Joy and Carlo, 1998: 132) sums up this situation for some prisoners and their families: Separations †¦ are likely to have been preceded by family turmoil, conflict, and dysfunction in many cases relative to family functioning in intact families †¦ Many of these families and children are vulnerable even more to further problems and behavioural disorders subsequent tithe separation itself. The latter may increase social, financial, or personal difficulties with which already dysfunctional families cannot cope. As can be seen, the act of removing children from their mothers my produce social, personal and emotional problems for the child. In addition to this the problems that originate during the imprisonment of their mothers, and that may exist prior, will be further compounded if the relationship between mother and child is so damaged that the child may be looked after by the state after release. This in itself is associated with affecting the personal social and emotional development of children and where possible should be avoided where possible. The suggestions made later when alternatives to imprisonment are considered. Imprisonment has adverse effects on women who are mothers even beyond other considerations that have been made in this paper. It has been found that incarcerated mothers report depression, anxiety and fears about their children’s safety while they are apart, as well as feelings of guilt and inadequacy in addition to concerns about returning to the family structure that existed prior to imprisonment.(Snyder-Joy and Carlo, 1998: 135) Punishment is compounded for many female prisoners when they are separated from their children. The majority of incarcerated women are mothers – estimates range from 60-80%, and most of these women were providing the primary means of family support prior to imprisonment(research outlined by Dodge and Pogrebin, 2001), Rasche (2000) commented that the harshest single aspect of being imprisoned may bathe separation of mother and child. Mental Health The assumption that women are more likely to require psychological assessment is evident in the recommendations made by the Home Office, which urges sentences to pay particular attention to the treatment of female criminals. Feminists may argue that this emphasis serves to undermine women, for example Carlen and Worrall argue that the normal women’s body could be perceived as intrinsically ‘abnormal. Menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth and the menopause result in ‘hormone imbalance’ which suggests that the women may be imbalanced at these times (From Fox, 2002: 60). However it is argued that this disposition to consider female defendants as medically unsound underpins the trend towards a treatment approach for these women, rather than a custodial sentence which would be deemed as inappropriate for their needs. A further consideration of the mental health issues and needs of female offenders can be seen later. The Efficacy of Prison Carlen (1998: 102) found that overcrowding in prisons meant that the system was unable to care effectively for those inmates that pose special problems of need, danger and risk. In fact it was found that the general consensus of staff working in the prison service was that the most prisons can hope to achieve, due to the combination of overcrowding and increasingly restrictive security measures, was ‘damage limitation’ rather than equipping inmates to lead good and useful lives when they are discharged. (Carlen, 1998: 149) ‘†¦the incapacitation effect of current levels of imprisonment is not great †¦ A general increase in the use of imprisonment, either by increasing the proportion sentenced to custody, increasing the sentences imposed or increasing the proportion of the sentence that offenders spend in custody, would not affect crime levels by any substantial amount.’ (Tarring, 1993, quoted in Prison Reform Trust1993, in Carlen, 1998:151) The problem with arguing towards a reduction in custodial sentencing for female offenders is that it can be considered a sexist response that is discordant to the attempt of the criminal justice system to treat all equally, and encouraging women to be unlawful without fear of punitive sentence. However, supported by other researchers, Carlen offers a response to this question. She argues that: firstly, the economic, ideological and political conditions in which women break the law are different to those in which man commit crime; secondly, the logic of sentencing tends to be rooted in oppressive and outmoded assumptions about the ‘proper’ role of women in society; and thirdly, that women who appear before the courts usually will have been subject to informal and ‘anti-social’ controls (not suffered by their male counterparts) which would already have affected their opportunities for full citizenship, meaning they suffer a ‘double regulation’(Car len,1998: 153). Carlen recommends that unless women have committed very serious crimes, or pose a danger to public which means they must be incarcerated as a matter of public protection, no good can come from imprisoning women, ‘Almost certainly they will require help of some description – but always of a kind that no prison can provide. Imprisonment can only damage them further, and make them more likely to break the law in the future. (Carlen, 199: 153) In response to evidence and theories presented by researchers and academics the Government have stated that, ‘Imprisonment is not the most effective punishment for most crime. Custody should be reserved as punishment for very serious offences.’ (Home Office 1988, taken from Worrall, 1997: 28). However, as can be seen later, government policy has not always reflected this view. (5) Alternatives to Custodial Sentences for Female Offenders As can be seen from the theory and evidence put forward previously, there is increasing support for the majority of custodial sentences for female offenders to be replaced with an alternative method of punishment or control. Alternatives to imprisonment may also supply a better medium for therapeutic intervention than the current prison system. The Howard League for Penal Reform leads the way in alternative thinking in the Criminal Justice System: The Howard League for Penal Reform is today recommending that prison custody for women should be virtually abolished so that only those women who are convicted of serious and violent offences and who represent a continuing danger to the public should be held in custody. For other women offenders community based interventions that make amends for the wrong done and encourage women to change their lives offer the best change of creating a safer society. (Frances Cooke, Speaker for The Howard League, 2005). In the main, alternatives to custodial sentences involve a type of community punishment, in the form of probation, fines, and electronic tagging, for example, or specialist units. Some examples of these alternatives, and their use for female offenders, will be looked at in this chapter. Firstly, though it is important to identify the main barriers to community punishment alternatives, in order to gain a better understanding of the more specific sentences. Worrall identifies many obstacles to community punishment (1997: 13).Firstly she identifies the obstacle of public and media perception that imprisonment is the only way to punish people accordingly, with other punishments viewed as inferior. Secondly, there is the obstacle of ‘unfair’ or inconsistent sentencing, in that community sentences tend to be reserved for those who can pay, or deemed to be able to benefit from supervision which leaves certain disadvantaged groups in prison. Thirdly, there is the concept of ‘net-widening’ based on the assumption that alternatives to custody will, rather than defer offenders form prison, draw more people into the criminal justice system that may otherwise have been diverted to another agency. Fourthly, is the problem of enforcement, it is much easier not to comply with on-custodial sentences, and some believe that without the backup of threats of incarceration, community alternatives are not viable. However, despite these drawbacks it is important to consider the benefits of using alternatives to custody. Electronic Monitoring Sections 12 and 13 of the Criminal Justice Act (1991) introduced electronic tagging as a method of supervision and control and could offer a valuable commodity in the criminal justice system. However, electronic tagging systems have had a quite a number of starting up problems, and in some cases offenders under this system have requested to be put into custody as this was deemed preferable, despite Tom Stacey, founder of the Offenders Tag Association suggesting that opposition to tagging was based on wilful ignorance of the appalling nature of prison conditions (Worrall, 1997: 31). The tagging system was criticised for leaving families with very little income due to the restraints upon offenders, and for malfunctioning. According to the Prison Reform Trust (1990) by January 1990, only 46 defendants had been tagged on contracts which cost the tax payer  £564,706. Of these 24 had breached the conditions of their bail, been arrested for further offences, or absconded (Worrall, 1997: 3 2). However, if these problems can be overcome and the system used effectively, electronic monitoring may be recognised as a flexible and cost effective alternative to prison, which may be appropriate for female offenders who have been convicted of less serious, less violent and less harmful crimes. It could provide for effective monitoring and control, whilst being used alongside a programme of support and will allow for family and social ties to be retained to a greater degree than imprisonment Special Units for female offenders who are mothers As can be seen in previous chapters a need for specialist provision for female offenders with children is widely supported. In many cases affine, probation, or a curfew order, monitored by electronic tagging, for example, may be appropriate, however specialist units may also be successful in overcoming some of the problems associated with incarcerating mothers. These would supply an opportunity for female offenders to be punished and monitored without the separation of children from their mothers, whilst also providing supp Alternatives to Custodial Sentences for Female Offenders Alternatives to Custodial Sentences for Female Offenders This dissertation questions the increase in the female prison population in recent years. It then goes on to outline some reasons against imprisoning women, looking at the alternatives to custodial sentences, and the past and upcoming policy. It suggests that alternatives should be considered over and above custodial sentences as these may be more appropriate for the needs of women. (2) Introduction In the last few years there has been a widespread concern for the numbers of women that are imprisoned. Between 1993 and 2003, the female population increased by almost 200% . Many have concerns about this, for example, The Howard League for Penal Reform published its submission to the United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention, expressing serious concern at the increase in the use of prison for women and the added problems they face in custody. The Howard League for Penal Reform research shows that 4,394 women were detained in 18prisons in England and Wales on 4 March 2005, almost treble the number held in 1993. The number of women experiencing prison over the year has increased by almost 3,000 as most women are sent to prison for only short periods. The number of women on remand has also increased by about a third. This has meant that women’s imprisonment has come under the spotlight for both the public and academics alike. In response to the growing concerns for the unsuitability of custodial sentences for the majority of women there have been attempts to find alternatives to imprisonment that are more appropriate. There has been much concern about the greater numbers of women being imprisoned for several reasons. In the past there has been a reluctance to see punishment as gender specific. As Carlen (2002:3) points out: Theories of punishment are usually expected to be gender-neutral: the state punishes, the citizen submits and the legitimacy of the punishment is debated according to the jurisprudential principles of the time.’ But recently, for example, there has been increasing recognition that the criminal profile of women prisoners is different to that of their male counterparts, and the rehabilitative needs of these women are also different to imprisoned men. In addition the needs of the children of some of these incarcerated women are beginning to be recognised. This dissertation will look at some of these issues that are of growing concern, firstly outlining the main reasons why the female prison population has increased in recent years, and then looking at how custodial sentences are inappropriate for the needs of women. It will then go on to consider a few alternatives to custody that may be more appropriate. In doing so it is necessary to take a look at the policy in this area to establish the problems and make recommendations for the future. Pat Carlen puts forward some questions that are asked each time women’s imprisonment comes under the spotlight: Is it necessary to sends many women to prison? Are women treated differently to men by the police, the courts and the prisons? Why are so many poor, black and mentally ill women in prison? And so on (Carlen, 1998: 2). This dissertation will attempt to explore some of these questions and the issues that surround them. It aims to show that there is a vast disparity between the present system of women’s imprisonment and the needs of the women being sent to them, and in doing so will examine the alternatives to custodial sentences for women. It is important to consider gender differentials at this point. Carlen (2002: 7) puts forward the question: ‘Are women punished differently to men?’ and in response suggests that there are six main bodies of literature that attempt to answer this question. Firstly, there is the historical literature which focuses on the quantity and quality of women’s punishments; Secondly, sociological literature which places the experience of women’s punishment within the wider framework of control, arguing that women appear less frequently in the courts as they are ‘more closely constrained by informal controls of family, factory, fashion, men and medicine’ (Carlen, 2002: 7). Socio-legal studies endeavour to establish whether women are sentenced more or less harshly than men; criminological studies attempt to ascertain and assess the quality of the confinement experienced by imprisoned women. Also a campaigning literature is identified by Carlen, which argues fore variety of reasons that women receive a harsher punishment than that of their male counterparts; and, the literature that has responded to this criticism, for example that provided by the official Home Office Inspectorates. It can be ascertained from the wide review of this literature that firm evidence that supports the fact that women are more severely punished than men is difficult to find, as Carlen points out, ‘In sum, the findings of all this research and scholarship suggest that there is no strong statistical evidence to support claims that women are sentenced more harshly than men.’(Carlen, 2002: 7). In addition to this it would be awkward to ascertain the gender-bias as separate from the bias relating to class or race. However, based on the demographic characteristics of imprisoned women, Carlen (2002: 8) argues that although the majority of women are treated more leniently by the criminal justice system (for example see Lederman and Gels Thorpe, 1997, quoted in Carlen, 2002: 8), certain women, in particular those ‘who have been brought up in the states institutional care, have transient lifestyles, have their own children already in state guardianship, are living out with family and male-related domesticity, or are members of the of ethnic minority groups-are more likely to proceed through the criminal justice system and end up in prison.’ Although this argument does not contend with the argument that women are treated more leniently with men, it complements the argument of Lederman and Gels Thorpe: The likelihood that female offenders may overall receive more lenient treatment than males does not rule out the possibility that individual women receive unusually harsh treatment.’ (Lederman and Gels Thorpe, 1994: 4) As can be seen from the following chapter, gender influences are evident within all aspects of crime, criminality and the criminal justice system. Gender stereotypes can inform decisions as to whether person has committed a crime, whether they should be prosecuted and found guilty for a crime, and indeed, gender affects how a person might be punished and how this may affect the criminal and society. Criminal law tends to render women as passive victims, and when they appear as criminal they can either treated as irrational, acting under external factors or as unfeminine monsters (Nicolson, 2000:25). Despite this, it’s only recently that these gender dimensions have been considered, as Nicolson points out, ‘Traditionally criminal law has been analysed and taught as if it’s rules are gender blind and as if the gender of both the victims and perpetrators of crime is irrelevant’(from Nicolson and Bobbing’s, 2002: 1). This gender-blind approach to crime and the criminal justice system has now been recognised and analysed by feminists and criminologists alike. Fox (2002) urges that it is crucial for both feminist scholars and students of criminal law to engage with the issue of punishment, as this offers a key to understanding substantive law issues, in the past, she suggests, literature has focussed on women who kill, for example, but has failed to put forward a suggestion for whether these women should be punished and how. This paper will attempt to redress this imbalance. (3) Explanations of the Increase in the Female Prison Population In looking at the explanations underlying the steep increase in women’s imprisonment in recent years, the study undertaken by Carlen(1998) offers some useful points to consider. She accumulated several opinions in her study which serve to add understanding. A female Prison Governor suggested that the number of prison sentences are higher despite no significant rise in the number of reported crime due to several reasons; firstly, she suggests that it could be andante-feminist approach that says, ‘well, if you women want equality, you’ve got to take it’; secondly, it could be due to the rising pressure on women in society to cope financially without a partner leading to more crime being committed; thirdly, she suggests, it could be that women in the past have been more likely to go down the route of being admitted to a mental hospital which has suffered cuts in funding. A Prison Officer put forward that women are still being sent to prison for trivial crimes, which is supported by prisoners comments. Carlen summarises the responses given as thus: (1) more women are committing violent crimes; (2) more women who would not have previously gone to prison are going due to increasing involvement with drugs; (3)more black women are going to prison so racism may be the key; or (4)prison is being used to incarcerate the same social categories for women that it always has – the destitute, the most obviously gender deviant, and the mentally disturbed – but the numbers of women presenting themselves in these categories have increased with growing economic inequality (Carlen, 1998: 51). Another explanation is that women are becoming more violent, indeed the proportion of female prisoners under sentence for crimes of violence against the person was indeed (at 20 per cent) only two present less than the proportion of male prisoners. Fletcher (1975, in Carlen, 1998: 52) supports this view: ‘It is undoubtedly the case that the level of convictions of violence against the person has increased among women.’ However, he also points out that, ‘the female prison population has †¦ risen steeply whilst serious convictions have actually fallen’; suggesting that this may be due to longer sentences being served. As will be seen later, it is much more likely that it is the increase in more punitive sentencing for trivial crimes that is more likely to offer an explanation. It is possible that racism is the key to increases in the female prison population, as the Home Office (1997) points out: In June 1996, there were 10,200 people from ethnic minorities in Prison Service establishments. Ethnic minorities accounted for 18percent of the male prison population and 24 per cent of the female population compared with 6 per cent of the male and female populations of England and Wales (From Carlen, 1998: 54). However, there may be other reasons underlying these numbers, and it’s impossible to disentangle issues of race, gender, and other forms of inequality. Unfortunately there is no time here to consider all the concerns that this issue deserves, except to say that it may be contributory factor to the increased numbers of imprisoned women, but this view is highly contentious. Carlen (1998: 54) suggests that when women are being considered for tougher sentence rather than a milder sentence, they may be escalated up the tariff towards the custodial end more quickly than a male purely because the range of non-custodial facilities for women is narrower. However, although all these concepts will serve in some way to increase the numbers of female offenders serving custodial sentences, the most likely and supported factor is the economic and social status of women: †¦ despite exaggerated claims about increasingly violent and addiction driven female offenders, it appears that there is consensus amongst most analysts and commentators that the steep increases in the numbers of women received into British Prisons in the1990’s can best be explained by the increased numbers of women in the social categories of economic need and social deprivation who have traditionally been more vulnerable to imprisonment, and by the increased punitiveness of the courts towards female offenders in general. (Carlen, 1998: 56) (4) Reasons Against Imprisoning Women The Feminist Response In looking at the feminist response to criminal justice for women, firstly it is important to look at the general models of punishment that exist today. Fox (2000: 51) points out that traditionally there are three main theories of punishment – retribution, deterrence and rehabilitation. The retribution model is concerned with the notion of vengeance, and balancing the punishment with the level of harm inflicted on the victim. Advocates of this ‘just desert’ approach(Clarkson and Keating ) claim that it ensures proportionality between crime and punishment, promises limited punishment, helps reduce sentencing disparity and protects rights by restoring due process. However this approach is open to criticism due to its lack of consideration of individual factors such as poverty, unemployment, inequality and gender, assuming that every individual is an autonomous member of society. Similarly, the deterrence model focuses on rational autonomous action through its aim of discouraging crime through the threat and example of punishment, which like the latter model does not take into account individual differences, including the responsibility held by criminals. Fox (2000: 53) suggests that the rehabilitation model appears more promising from a feminist perspective as it aims to secure conformity through inner positive motivation on the part of the individual(Clarkson and Keating ) and its focus on understanding rather than condemning the offender, through treatment. Although it has been debated as to whether this model can be characterised as punishment, but as Fox recognises, ‘treatment oriented approaches can involve punitive interventions under the guise of treatment’. The criticism of this approach is similar to that of incapacitation theory whish aims for protective sentencing. By imposing longer or more severe punishments thee criminal may become unable to commit more crimes. Fox discusses that because of the special privations which prison sentences may inflict on female prisoners, it this may have greater impact on women. Therefore it is suggested that a new rationale for punishment that differs from the traditional frameworks to encompass gender differences is needed. Howe takes the view that the definition of punishment needs to be expanded to incorporate broader social control mechanisms, son that it, ‘enables us to forge links between two critical projects: the masculinise one, of analysing the emergence of punishment regimes in the context of the States power to punish, and the feminist one, of mapping the differential impact of disciplinary power on lived female bodies.’(Howe, 1994, see footnote 5). This focus on the body as a means of criticising models of punishment is typical of some writers, for example, Wait who argues that the body is a vehicle for control, in regards to examples such as electronic tagging, the forced separation of parents from children and spouses from each other, as well as community service and probation orders that require the body to work in particular ways, he comments that: The pain inflicted upon it may be less direct, the mark it makes and traces leaves less visible; but the exercise of coercive discipline over the body and a recognition of the anguish it is capable of experiencing are still at the heart of punishment’(Wait, 1996, from Fox, 2000: 58). Fox puts forward that this can apply to other types of punishment too, namely, forced treatment for drug and alcohol dependency and the use of boot camps, chain gangs and capital punishment in the US. Focus on the body, she suggests, can make the diverse ways in which women are placed under surveillance, disciplined and punished more apparent, and that practices such as imprisoning pregnant women, handcuffing labouring women, separating mothers from their children and strip searching tend to force people to confront the reality of punishment. As can be seen a focus on the body can take forward feminist perspectives in its struggle against the patriarchal nature of the State’s criminal justice system. Although greater numbers of women continue to receive custodial sentences, proportionally more women offenders in both the US and Receive probation, or absolute or conditional charges. Pat Carlen(1985, quoted in Fox, 2000: 60) puts forward a potential reason for this: ‘†¦the majority of women †¦ in trouble are much more likely to be in receipt of medical, psychiatric or welfare regulation than caught up in the machinery of criminal justice, which accounts for the court’s readiness to require social and medical reports for female offenders, particularly where the offence is unnatural or violent’ The Specific Needs of Women This section will outline some of the identified needs of female offenders focussing on those needs associated with family and mental health issues. Family It could be argued that women’s identity as mothers is critical in sentencing practice. Fox (2000:62) argues that those women who conform to the traditional stereotype as mothers can more easily avoid being labelled as criminal, whilst conversely, women who do not conform to this stereotype compare unfavourably, and women who are judged to fails wives or mothers, such as young single women who commit offences as members as gangs, for example, are treated relatively harshly. This highlights how gender roles can have an effect on criminal procedure in general, and sentencing. The Home Office report offered by Lederman and Gels Thorpe confirm that this is the case, reporting that the degree to which a female offender conforms to traditional gender roles, especially regarding her marital status, is the most influential factoring how she is regarded by the courts. Therefore it seems that the discrimination faced by women in society carries over to the criminal justice system. Carlen (1998: 74) in her study looked at the different experience of women in prison compared to that of their male counter parts. She found that the most resounding response related to women’s role within the family both in terms of ideology and function. This was described mostly in terms of women’s role as mothers, although, also included their roles of primary care-giver to other family members, including the dependency that men had upon them. For example, male staff recognised that a powerful mix of biological ties, emotional bonds and family ideologies can affect a woman’s prison experience (Carlen, 1998:74). One respondent in particular commented that, in 99 per cent of cases when a man comes to prison he has the knowledge that his children are being looked after and the rent will be paid by the DSS, however women tend to lose their homes, and often their children to foster care. Another commented that the females have a closer bond to their children and it affects them far more. In regards to remand, one respondent suggested that, ‘If a woman has a baby while she is on remand in custody, social services will be contacted and the baby would be taken off her. She’s being denied the right to bond with that baby at such a vital stage†¦ Another problem that we have is that if they are sentenced we initiate the procedure for applying for a Mother and Baby Unit, but there are not enough mother and baby spaces for them to go to.’ (A Prison Officer, from Carlen, 1998: 79) Contemporary Criminal Justice policies can have a detrimental impact on families, in terms of both the impact of a mother’s imprisonment on their children and the impact upon the mothers. With the striking increase in numbers of women serving custodial sentences the effect that this can have on the children that a proportion of these women have needs to be taken into consideration. Ideology that contends with the view that female offenders do not deserve privileges such as regular contact with their children has a lack of regard of the fact that this also penalizes the children, Clarke (1995) refers to these children as the ‘unseen victims of a mother’s incarceration’. Although removing a child from the criminality associated with their mothers is often considered to be in the best interests of the child, this removals harmful in itself. Snyder-Joy and Carlo (1998), in their review of some of the research carried out that look at the effects of the child, found that incarcerating mothers may produce serious negative effects for the children. They found that the forcible separation and lack of close contact between mother and child may cause psychological and behavioural problems for the children, such as aggression, poor school performance, attention deficit, anger, poor social skills, depression, and sleep disruptions. In addition to this, children of incarcerated parents area risk of also ending up in the criminal justice system. In fact, Barnhill and Dresser’s 1991 research notes that, ‘children of inmates are five to six times more likely than their peers to become incarcerated themselves’ (Snyder-Joy and Carlo, 1998: 132). It can be hard to ascertain whether it is the actual imprisonment of mothers that has these effects, rather than say, the economic and social factors that may also affect their mothers, or the general way in which they have been brought up, however the research findings should not be disregarded and the potential effects of custodial sentences of mothers on children should certainly be considered when debating women’s imprisonment. Gabel (1992, taken from Snyder-Joy and Carlo, 1998: 132) sums up this situation for some prisoners and their families: Separations †¦ are likely to have been preceded by family turmoil, conflict, and dysfunction in many cases relative to family functioning in intact families †¦ Many of these families and children are vulnerable even more to further problems and behavioural disorders subsequent tithe separation itself. The latter may increase social, financial, or personal difficulties with which already dysfunctional families cannot cope. As can be seen, the act of removing children from their mothers my produce social, personal and emotional problems for the child. In addition to this the problems that originate during the imprisonment of their mothers, and that may exist prior, will be further compounded if the relationship between mother and child is so damaged that the child may be looked after by the state after release. This in itself is associated with affecting the personal social and emotional development of children and where possible should be avoided where possible. The suggestions made later when alternatives to imprisonment are considered. Imprisonment has adverse effects on women who are mothers even beyond other considerations that have been made in this paper. It has been found that incarcerated mothers report depression, anxiety and fears about their children’s safety while they are apart, as well as feelings of guilt and inadequacy in addition to concerns about returning to the family structure that existed prior to imprisonment.(Snyder-Joy and Carlo, 1998: 135) Punishment is compounded for many female prisoners when they are separated from their children. The majority of incarcerated women are mothers – estimates range from 60-80%, and most of these women were providing the primary means of family support prior to imprisonment(research outlined by Dodge and Pogrebin, 2001), Rasche (2000) commented that the harshest single aspect of being imprisoned may bathe separation of mother and child. Mental Health The assumption that women are more likely to require psychological assessment is evident in the recommendations made by the Home Office, which urges sentences to pay particular attention to the treatment of female criminals. Feminists may argue that this emphasis serves to undermine women, for example Carlen and Worrall argue that the normal women’s body could be perceived as intrinsically ‘abnormal. Menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth and the menopause result in ‘hormone imbalance’ which suggests that the women may be imbalanced at these times (From Fox, 2002: 60). However it is argued that this disposition to consider female defendants as medically unsound underpins the trend towards a treatment approach for these women, rather than a custodial sentence which would be deemed as inappropriate for their needs. A further consideration of the mental health issues and needs of female offenders can be seen later. The Efficacy of Prison Carlen (1998: 102) found that overcrowding in prisons meant that the system was unable to care effectively for those inmates that pose special problems of need, danger and risk. In fact it was found that the general consensus of staff working in the prison service was that the most prisons can hope to achieve, due to the combination of overcrowding and increasingly restrictive security measures, was ‘damage limitation’ rather than equipping inmates to lead good and useful lives when they are discharged. (Carlen, 1998: 149) ‘†¦the incapacitation effect of current levels of imprisonment is not great †¦ A general increase in the use of imprisonment, either by increasing the proportion sentenced to custody, increasing the sentences imposed or increasing the proportion of the sentence that offenders spend in custody, would not affect crime levels by any substantial amount.’ (Tarring, 1993, quoted in Prison Reform Trust1993, in Carlen, 1998:151) The problem with arguing towards a reduction in custodial sentencing for female offenders is that it can be considered a sexist response that is discordant to the attempt of the criminal justice system to treat all equally, and encouraging women to be unlawful without fear of punitive sentence. However, supported by other researchers, Carlen offers a response to this question. She argues that: firstly, the economic, ideological and political conditions in which women break the law are different to those in which man commit crime; secondly, the logic of sentencing tends to be rooted in oppressive and outmoded assumptions about the ‘proper’ role of women in society; and thirdly, that women who appear before the courts usually will have been subject to informal and ‘anti-social’ controls (not suffered by their male counterparts) which would already have affected their opportunities for full citizenship, meaning they suffer a ‘double regulation’(Car len,1998: 153). Carlen recommends that unless women have committed very serious crimes, or pose a danger to public which means they must be incarcerated as a matter of public protection, no good can come from imprisoning women, ‘Almost certainly they will require help of some description – but always of a kind that no prison can provide. Imprisonment can only damage them further, and make them more likely to break the law in the future. (Carlen, 199: 153) In response to evidence and theories presented by researchers and academics the Government have stated that, ‘Imprisonment is not the most effective punishment for most crime. Custody should be reserved as punishment for very serious offences.’ (Home Office 1988, taken from Worrall, 1997: 28). However, as can be seen later, government policy has not always reflected this view. (5) Alternatives to Custodial Sentences for Female Offenders As can be seen from the theory and evidence put forward previously, there is increasing support for the majority of custodial sentences for female offenders to be replaced with an alternative method of punishment or control. Alternatives to imprisonment may also supply a better medium for therapeutic intervention than the current prison system. The Howard League for Penal Reform leads the way in alternative thinking in the Criminal Justice System: The Howard League for Penal Reform is today recommending that prison custody for women should be virtually abolished so that only those women who are convicted of serious and violent offences and who represent a continuing danger to the public should be held in custody. For other women offenders community based interventions that make amends for the wrong done and encourage women to change their lives offer the best change of creating a safer society. (Frances Cooke, Speaker for The Howard League, 2005). In the main, alternatives to custodial sentences involve a type of community punishment, in the form of probation, fines, and electronic tagging, for example, or specialist units. Some examples of these alternatives, and their use for female offenders, will be looked at in this chapter. Firstly, though it is important to identify the main barriers to community punishment alternatives, in order to gain a better understanding of the more specific sentences. Worrall identifies many obstacles to community punishment (1997: 13).Firstly she identifies the obstacle of public and media perception that imprisonment is the only way to punish people accordingly, with other punishments viewed as inferior. Secondly, there is the obstacle of ‘unfair’ or inconsistent sentencing, in that community sentences tend to be reserved for those who can pay, or deemed to be able to benefit from supervision which leaves certain disadvantaged groups in prison. Thirdly, there is the concept of ‘net-widening’ based on the assumption that alternatives to custody will, rather than defer offenders form prison, draw more people into the criminal justice system that may otherwise have been diverted to another agency. Fourthly, is the problem of enforcement, it is much easier not to comply with on-custodial sentences, and some believe that without the backup of threats of incarceration, community alternatives are not viable. However, despite these drawbacks it is important to consider the benefits of using alternatives to custody. Electronic Monitoring Sections 12 and 13 of the Criminal Justice Act (1991) introduced electronic tagging as a method of supervision and control and could offer a valuable commodity in the criminal justice system. However, electronic tagging systems have had a quite a number of starting up problems, and in some cases offenders under this system have requested to be put into custody as this was deemed preferable, despite Tom Stacey, founder of the Offenders Tag Association suggesting that opposition to tagging was based on wilful ignorance of the appalling nature of prison conditions (Worrall, 1997: 31). The tagging system was criticised for leaving families with very little income due to the restraints upon offenders, and for malfunctioning. According to the Prison Reform Trust (1990) by January 1990, only 46 defendants had been tagged on contracts which cost the tax payer  £564,706. Of these 24 had breached the conditions of their bail, been arrested for further offences, or absconded (Worrall, 1997: 3 2). However, if these problems can be overcome and the system used effectively, electronic monitoring may be recognised as a flexible and cost effective alternative to prison, which may be appropriate for female offenders who have been convicted of less serious, less violent and less harmful crimes. It could provide for effective monitoring and control, whilst being used alongside a programme of support and will allow for family and social ties to be retained to a greater degree than imprisonment Special Units for female offenders who are mothers As can be seen in previous chapters a need for specialist provision for female offenders with children is widely supported. In many cases affine, probation, or a curfew order, monitored by electronic tagging, for example, may be appropriate, however specialist units may also be successful in overcoming some of the problems associated with incarcerating mothers. These would supply an opportunity for female offenders to be punished and monitored without the separation of children from their mothers, whilst also providing supp