This book provides an analysis of the issues relating to work with women offenders. Imprisoning women offenders does not solve the problems that underlie the involvement of women in the criminal justice system, and a particular concern of this book is to identify and develop alternative responses that offer appropriate support and intervention to address women’s underlying problems and reduce re-offending. The increase in women’s imprisonment is very much an international phenomenon.In many places it has more than doubled in the past decade, significantly outstripping increases in the number of male prisoners – and with particular consequences for minority ethnic, black and aboriginal women, who constitute disproportionate levels of prison populations in many countries including Canada, the United States, the UK and Australia.