The challenge of working with racially motivated offenders: An exercise in ambivalence?
| Author | Derek McGhee |
| Published date | 01 September 2007 |
| Date | 01 September 2007 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0264550507080373 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
The challenge of working with racially
motivated offenders: An exercise in
ambivalence?
Derek McGhee, University of Southampton
Abstract A Probation Circular published in 2005 announced that accredited
one-to-one programmes should be developed for Racially Motivated Offenders
(RMOs). This article reviews a number of existing literatures written by both prac-
titioners and academics which have focused on the problems and opportunities
that arise during interventions with RMOs. At the same time, in this article, insights
derived from the latter literatures are contextualized within poststructuralist and
discursive psychological literatures. The outcome of this is an attempt to forge
common ground between practitioner-derived insights on racism, racists, identity,
locality and shared ‘communities of prejudice’ with poststructuralist approaches
to identity and the advancement of specific therapeutic/correctionalist techniques
(especially the motivational interviewing technique pioneered by Miller and Rollnick,
1991) for facilitating change processes in RMOs.
Keywords ambiguity, denial, hate crime, motivational interviewing, poststructural-
ism, racisms
Introduction
The National Probation Service has an important role to play in working with those
who commit racist offences in order to minimise the risk of harm they pose to the
public and to make them less likely to re-offend in the future. (Her Majesty’s
Inspectorate of Probation, 2005: 1)
Racially Aggravated Offence legislation was introduced in Part II of the Crime and
Disorder Act of 1998. This legislation is part of a growing number of so-called
‘hate crime’ provisions that have been introduced in England and Wales. These
include Incitement to Racial Hatred in the Public Order Act of 1986 (Part III) and
Religiously Aggravated Offences in the Anti-Terrorism and Security Act of 2001.
213
Probation Journal
The Journal of Community and Criminal Justice
Copyright © 2007 NAPO Vol 54(3): 213–226
DOI: 10.1177/0264550507080373
www.napo.org.uk
http://prb.sagepub.com
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