“Prove me the bam!”: Victimization and agency in the lives of young women who commit violent offences' — Practitioner response 2

This article is a practitioner's response to Susan Batchelor's article `Prove me the bam!': Victimization and agency in the lives of young women who commit violent offences', published in Probation Journal (December, 2005). The article drew on research Susan Batchelor had undertaken at HMPYOI Cornton Vale in Scotland with 21 young women aged from 16 to 24 years-old who were imprisoned for violent offences. Susan Batchelor's findings challenge the notion that female violence is `abnormal' or `bizarre', suggesting instead that it is a rational response in lives characterized by multiple disadvantage.