Reviews for Sport and Crime Reduction

The average rating for Sport and Crime Reduction based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-03-10 00:00:00 William Ferullo The good, the bad, and the ugly: The good--The subject matter of this book was really intriguing. It focused on the women of male inmates and how their incarceration affects them emotionally, physically, economically, and spiritually. It was a very enlightening book on a subject matter I have no experience with. The research was thorough and the book provided a lot of statistics to bolster the author's claims. Which leads to the bad... The bad--I never really understood what the motive behind writing this book was. I originally thought it was going to portray an unbias view of women in relationships with prisoners, but that was clearly thrown out the window during the first chapter where the waiting room is described in great detail. The author seems to place a lot of emphasis on how the Correctional System is making the women "secondary prisoners" by making the prison a horrible place to visit. No duh! This isn't summer camp folks! The ugly--what's never mentioned in the book is that there is no one making these women endure these relationships. At any time, they are free to leave their partners and most of the general population would applaud them for doing so. However, for a multitude of reasons they don't leave and therefore, must conform to the "laws" of the prison. Another ugly aspect--while I'm sure that the author was trying to remain neutral as far as racial and ethnic lines went, the book did come across as a slightly skewed opinion on how the prisons are just racial segregation centers for the disadvantaged. Overall, it was a fascinating--albeit, technical--read about maintaining a relationship with someone doing time inside a penitentiary. The only caution I would advise is to begin with an open mind and skim the racial implications stated.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-07-29 00:00:00 Todd Hoover This book is based on Comfort's doctoral dissertation. She studied the lives of women whose significant other was imprisoned in San Quentin. She discusses such issues as how the lives of the women are affected in terms of finances and living situation as well as how they too in some respects become part of the prison system having to follow it's not always consistent rules to visit and keep in contact with their partners. She also gives time to such issues as why women choose to stay with men after they go to prison or even begin relationships with men who are already in prison. I found it to be a very interesting book. Parts of it are very filled with theory and references to other studies, so it's not a light reading book. But well worth reading if you're interested in a sociological study of this population.