Book Review: In Her Own Words: Women Offenders’ Views on Crime and Victimization

• Author: Edward J. Schauer
• Published date: 01 September 2006
• Date: 01 September 2006
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0734016806292918
• Subject Matter: Articles

His strategy was to slow down negotiations as much as possible and to stay insulated from

the pleas of hostages, their families, and the media.

Leadership is not always about knowing all of the answers; sometimes it is just knowing

what is not the answer. Estelle’s stalling tactic bought time for him and his counselors to

deliberate and plan, and the director made his decision clear from the start that “there will be

no exchange of hostages for prisoners’ freedom—even at the cost of hostages’ lives” (p. 35).

So the stage was set for the eventual duel—the mano-a-mano contest of wills—between

the proud if heartless prisoner and the cool, tenacious director.

A highly placed official in the TDC, who began his career shortly after the Carrasco

affair, recalled the excessive sense of bravado that permeated the ranks of the department

in those days. Perhaps that explains why there was no “blue ribbon” study after the ordeal

ended, no calling to account of the leaders responsible. After all, ongoing security breaches

allowed the guns and ammunition to be smuggled into the prison, easily correctable archi-

tectural defects made it impossible for TDC to assault the area where the captives were

being held, and a questionable classification system placed this notorious prisoner in a

medium-security facility.

It is an old saw that when something goes wrong in a prison, it happens because some-

one has failed to do his or her job properly. But when the failings pile up as they did before

and during this crisis, the leadership of the department should become subject to scrutiny.

That did not happen then, perhaps because of the euphoria of seeing the calamity end with-

out more deaths than what actually did occur. It also is true, however, that when the Attica

Prison riot ended a few years earlier in New York, the first press accounts blamed the deaths

of hostages on the prisoners. Later, it became clear that they died from gunshots from the

state police assault force.

It just might be that our desire to make heroes causes us to inadvertently distort the way

we look at these tragedies.

William M. DiMascio

Pennsylvania Prison Society, Philadelphia

Alarid, L. F., & Cromwell, P. (2006). In Her Own Words: Women Offenders’ Views on

Crime and Victimization. Los Angeles: Roxbury.

DOI: 10.1177/0734016806292918

In this anthology, the editors have collected 22 previously published articles, introduced

them, and organized them into five book sections. Most of the articles are founded on fem-

inist theory and based on observational and interview research. The narrative data accent

childhood experiences relating to gender, race, poverty, drug use, and physical and sexual

victimization. Women’s adult experiences include more of the same, with the additional

issues of motherhood, economic marginalization, and family survival.

The approach of this compendium is that of women’s “pathways to crime,” in which the

life experiences of female offenders differ greatly from the experiences of male offenders.

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