‘Holistic’ Community Punishment and Criminal Justice Interventions for Women

Calls for ‘holistic’ responses to halt the increasing imprisonment of women are continually reiterated. Solutions are sought which aim to be both ‘gender‐responsive’ and ‘community‐based’; however, the absence of meaningful definitions of ‘community’ and ‘holistic’ means that superficial responses are often put in place in response to failures of the system. Taking as an example one attempt to introduce a community‐based service for women in Scotland, this article examines the challenges of implementing services that are located within ‘the community’ and considers the consequences for feasible attempts to reduce the number of women in prison in Scotland and internationally.