Community empowerment approaches
By Patrick Williams
The key to overcoming institutionalised racism in work with black, Asian and minority ethnic people in contact with the criminal justice system
Why read this evidence review?
This evidence review provides an in-depth look at growing rates of racial disparity in our criminal justice system and highlights key principles for effective interventions with people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds in contact with the system.
Patrick Williams, Senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, reviews the current evidence-base - to which he is an important contributor - and covers a number of key issues:
Racial disparity within the criminal justice system
The multidimensionality of social inequalities experienced by minority groups
The lack of a clear strategy and officially approved programs to tackle racial disparity in the criminal justice system
The criminal justice system’s preoccupation with risk as opposed to need
Principles to govern minority ethnic interventions
The importance of acknowledging racialisation and racism(s)
Community empowerment models
The argument for paying participants to engage
The importance of the voluntary sector.
An online evidence base for the voluntary sector working in the criminal justice system
This article forms part of a series from Clinks, created to develop a far-reaching and accessible evidence base covering the most common types of activity undertaken within the criminal justice system. There are two main aims of this online series:
To increase the extent to which the voluntary sector bases its services on the available evidence base
To encourage commissioners to award contracts to organisations delivering an evidence-based approach.
London: Clinks, 2023. 11p.