The experiences of women convicted of serious violence is under-researched. In probation practice, this translates into a corresponding lack of investment in offending behaviour programmes and interventions specifically focussed on working with women’s violence and its origins. The Female Offender Strategy (MoJ, 2018) promotes a trauma-informed and gender-responsive approach to working with women within the criminal justice system and highlights the importance of taking a specialist approach. Given the lack of research on which to base such an approach however, specifically in relation to women convicted of serious violence, the current study focussed on attempting to capture this perspective using qualitative semi-structured interviews with seven women convicted of serious violence.

Incidence of trauma amongst women involved in the criminal justice system is significantly higher
than that of the general population and is regularly linked with women’s offending. In recent years
there has been growing interest in trauma-informed practice which seeks to recognise and respond
to the prevalence of trauma. This interest has spread to the criminal justice sector, with numerous
prisons, probation services and the third sector in the UK all experimenting with implementing
trauma-informed approaches. Contact with a legal professional is a common thread that runs
through many women’s journeys through the criminal justice system but, in the UK at least, has not
been explored as an area in which the aforementioned trauma-informed practices could be utilised.
Through hearing the voices of women that have worked with lawyers and the voices of lawyers
themselves, this study seeks to examine the extent to which trauma-informed approaches could be
usefully implemented at this ‘touchpoint’ in the criminal justice system and whether lawyers could
become part of the trauma-informed offer for women.

Throughout our careers, Probation staff have presented differing attitudes and approaches towards working with women. To some, it is actively avoided, and it is quite common to hear from practitioners that, ‘working with one woman is like working with ten men’. Yet to others, it is the part of the job they most enjoy. Whilst practitioners' attitudes towards working with people having certain convictions is well investigated (i.e. Lea, Auburn and Kibblewhite, 1999), the phenomenon of attitudes towards working with women is hardly discussed. This study sets out to fill this gap by investigating the self-reported reasons for these differing attitudes and understand whether they were based on personal beliefs or external factors that could be changed through a shift in the organisation. Employing a two-staged, mixed method approach, we first conducted a staff survey across the Midlands probation region and then spent time speaking with two teams of staff who work exclusively with women, in focus groups.