Women and the Criminal Justice System focuses heavily on gender and ethnic diversity and on the strengths of oppressed people, especially women of color. A wide range of issues are covered, from the rate of early childhood sexual abuse victimization in female inmates, to estimates of instances of male prison-guard-on-female-inmate rape, to the rate of women lawyers achieving partnerships in their firms. The authors provide a wealth of recent data drawn from both official and international human rights sources. The final portion of the book includes text and personal interview materials that are devoted to the justice occupations records of women's progress and setbacks in entering the traditionally male dominated fields of policing, the law, and corrections.

The authors introduce students to the empowerment approach — a belief that if people are given half a chance, they can draw on their own resources to heal from the past and build for the future. This empowerment approach is already prominent in the social work field and widely used in victim treatment programs for working with female offenders.