Book Review: Counseling Female Offenders and Victims: A Strengths-Restorative Approach

Reviewed by Lynette Parker

In Counseling Female Offenders and Victims, Katherine van Wormer proposes a new model of practice that combines social work strengths theory with restorative justice principles. The book is a mixture of theoretical formulation, statistical information, and practical advice. Participant observation and statistical data are used to pull these two theories together. With a background in social work, van Wormer provides an insider’s view of the reality of working with offenders.

The restorative justice emphasis on responsibility, healing, and inclusion enables the combination with the strengths approach. This approach seeks to identify the strengths of the offender and to help build a support system for her. Major goals are to build empathy, recognize the context of the offense, and to empower the offender to move beyond destructive behavior. The same empowerment process is also used for victims. This type of empowerment and taking of responsibility can be seen through restorative encounters.

In building her argument, van Wormer explores the reasons that alternatives to incarceration should be developed for both men and women. She argues that cases should be taken individually, evaluated for the particular circumstance instead of by a standard scale. Important issues include the care for young children, loss of support networks, and ignorance of problems that may lead to criminal behavior. In pointing out the differences between male and female offenders, van Wormer also stresses how the violence found in prisons for men can lead to more aggressive behavior in offenders.

Concentrating on gender issues, van Wormer outlines the problems faced by women in the criminal justice system. She emphasizes the fact that many female offenders were at first victims. In doing so, she presents an interesting portrait of the lives of women in prison and as victims of violence. Although alternatives to incarceration are a key point in her argument, she does present a framework for working with incarcerated offenders.

Interestingly, van Wormer addresses the difficult problem of sex offenders, both male and female, domestic violence, and aiding victims and witnesses of violence.  She uses the stories of other social workers and her own experiences to demonstrate how these innovative approaches can be successful, although difficult.  Covering a wide variety of issues and strategies, Counseling Female Offenders and Victims provides an interesting approach to aiding female offenders and victims of crime.

September  2001