This chapter examines the ways in which racism and ethnic diversity influence the process and outcomes of criminal justice. The discussions include how minority ethnic groups are represented across the criminal justice process and the proportions they comprise at each stage of the process; minority ethnic people's experiences as victims, their patterns of offending, policing patterns, and rates of disproportionality; and the representation of minorities in the criminal justice professions. The conclusion examines present and future challenges for the criminal justice process in the UK.
Chapter
13. Racism and ethnicity in the criminal justice process
Alpa Parmar
Chapter
10. Punishment and rehabilitation in the community
This chapter reviews the main options available to the sentencing court which do not entail immediate custody. It therefore deals with community orders as well as suspended prison sentences (see Chapter 7, section 7.5 for financial penalties). It discusses the tensions between imposing proportionate punishment and delivering rehabilitation programmes. It examines the policy aim of reducing reoffending through specifying in court orders requirements to control and rehabilitate the offender in the community, and discusses the theory and practice of rehabilitation that underpins these initiatives. However, because punishment and rehabilitation also take place in the community for those released from prison, this chapter examines supervision for prisoners released on licence. The chapter, therefore, covers the policy changes in relation to the work and remit of the Probation Service.
Chapter
38. Punishment in the community: evolution, expansion, and moderation
Gwen Robinson and Fergus McNeill
This chapter examines the development and expansion of community sanctions and measures in the UK since the introduction of probation and parole in the early twentieth century. After introducing the main types of punishment in the community (supervision; unpaid work; treatment and other activities; restrictions and prohibitions), it considers their evolution in relation to four main rationales: rehabilitation, reparation, management, and punitiveness. The chapter then reviews some key sociological perspectives on punishment in the community, focusing on work inspired by Foucault, Durkheim, and Marx. Finally, it provides an introduction to recent research on punishment in the community in other jurisdictions, particularly Europe and the USA. The chapter presents two main conclusions: firstly, that there is now substantial international evidence to suggest that the expansion of punishment in the community has failed to deliver reductions in the use of imprisonment; and secondly, that arguments for penal moderation should take into account the ‘painful’ character of community sanctions and measures.
Chapter
39. Punishment in the community: Evolution, expansion, and moderation
Gwen Robinson and Fergus McNeill
This chapter examines the development and expansion of community sanctions and measures in the UK since the introduction of probation in the early twentieth century. After introducing the main types of punishment in the community (supervision; unpaid work; treatment and other activities; restrictions and prohibitions), it considers their evolution in relation to four main rationales: rehabilitation, reparation, management, and punitiveness. The chapter then reviews some key sociological perspectives on punishment in the community, focusing on work inspired by Foucault, Durkheim, and Marx. Finally, it provides an introduction to recent research on punishment in the community in other jurisdictions, particularly Europe and the USA. The chapter presents two main conclusions: firstly, that there is now substantial international evidence to suggest that the expansion of punishment in the community has failed to deliver reductions in the use of imprisonment; and secondly, that arguments for penal moderation should take into account the ‘painful’ character of community sanctions and measures.
