ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book discuss the notion of the absent father, which emerged as critical to the manner in which stakeholders themselves made sense of their own attitudes towards male offending. It discusses the findings against the background of the traditional undervaluing of the child care responsibilities traditionally ascribed to women. The book explains the binary representations of male and female offending that have found support within the criminological literature. It explores the attempts by offenders to reassert the masculinity that had been under stress due to conditions of chronic poverty. The case of Jamaica for example demonstrates the large number of contemporary households headed by women. Caribbean research on fathering has, like mothering, been tied to sociological and anthropological studies on the Caribbean family structure. Nonetheless, this research provides meaningful points of analysis for feminist work.
