Understanding the 'Social Deprivation Mindset': An Ex-Offender Speaks
| Author | Trevor Hercules |
| Pages | 7-21 |
7
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UNDERSTANDING THE “SOCIAL DEPRIVATION MINDSET” :
AN EX-OFFENDER SPEAKS
Trevor Hercules
Abstract
As an offender, even as an ex-offender, I always felt I was at war in some way with this
society, from an early age, and it has been a long journey to get to the point where I n ow
believe l must take on some moral responsibility, and put some thing back, based on my
experience. When I look around at the young people of today and see the same things
happening to them as happened to me when I was young, it seems to me that the
politicians and professionals have still not learnt how to deal with “problematic youth”, the
dangers and difficulties they face, and the problems they cause for others. The purpose of
this article is to enable people to understand what I term the “Social Deprivation Mindset”
(SDM) - the outlook of many young people today - and to suggest that the criminal justice
system should place more emphasis o n changing the mindset of problematic individuals,
rather th an placing most of their efforts on challenging their re -offending. I believe that
there are and can be people li ke me, ex-prisoners, who have changed their own lives
around and who can now play an important role helping others to change. I am not saying
that all ex-prisoners can or are able to do this, and, of c ourse, even I would advocate
stringent rules and regulations being put into place by government agencies like probation
to constrain harmful behaviour.
British Journal of Community Justice
©2013 Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield
ISSN 1475-0279
Vol. 10(3):7-21
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