NCJ Number
230930
Date Published
2010
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This chapter focuses on the new challenges that are impacting the United Kingdom's probation work with minority ethnic offenders and why and how these challenges require a change in approach.
Abstract
One of the main challenges impacting work with minority ethnic offenders is the United Kingdom's focus on preventing extremism/radicalization among members of new Muslim communities of migrant workers, refugees, and asylum seekers. If Muslim offenders, particularly those imprisoned, feel they are no longer subject to the basic protections of racial equality and are being viewed and treated as potential terrorists, this will undermine the conditions needed to achieve rehabilitation and positive reintegration into the community upon release from prison. The experience of probation staff in the London Probation Area is that staff has difficulty in gaining legitimacy with Muslim offenders. This increases the difficulty of supervision and produces anxiety among probation officers in working with high-profile, high-risk Muslim offenders. The challenges and complexities of supervising these offenders led to the creation of a specialist unit that manages those charged under British terrorist legislation. Members of this unit are encouraged to engage in insightful and time-consuming individualized interventions that integrate community groups and resources. This chapter provides a case example of such supervision. The chapter also provides a detailed discussion of the importance of recognizing individuality, desistance models (how and why offenders stop their criminal behaviors), and the importance of exercising creativity in managing minority ethnic offenders at risk of extremist behaviors. In contrast to cognitive behavioral approaches that emphasize thinking processes as the basis for offending, desistance models suggest using holistic, offender-focused interventions that examine individual characteristics, social environments, and the interactions between these factors. 4 notes and 38 references