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‘We’re not trying to turn them into middle-class Guardian readers’: constructing the offender in the probation ‘classroom’.

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Bibliographic Details
Title: ‘We’re not trying to turn them into middle-class Guardian readers’: constructing the offender in the probation ‘classroom’.
Authors: Perry, Emma1 Eperry100@yahoo.co.uk
Source: British Journal of Sociology of Education. Jul2013, Vol. 34 Issue 4, p525-543. 19p.
Subject Terms: *Cognitive therapy, *Evidence-based education, *Group identity, Rehabilitation of criminals, Neoliberalism, Criminal justice system, Social context
Geographic Terms: United Kingdom
Abstract: Over the past 10 years, cognitive-behavioural programmes have come to be seen as a standard form of rehabilitation for offenders in the United Kingdom. However, the majority of research has tended to evaluate the programmes purely within the evidence-based context of the ‘What Works’ criminal justice agenda. By placing the programmes within their social and political context, this article suggests that they function as neo-liberal regimes of governance that aim to ‘responsibilise’ offenders. Through an analysis of interviews with probation practitioners, the article explores how ‘othering’ discourses relating to offenders intersected with gendered, classed and ‘raced’ social identities. Consequently, young white, working-class masculinities were constructed within this educational environment as impulsive, irresponsible and ‘cognitively deficient’. Thus, the article calls for a discursive shift away from cognitive-behavioural rehabilitation techniques and towards more genuinely inclusive, socially just, and holistic educational programmes for probationers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
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Database: Education Research Complete
Description
Abstract:Over the past 10 years, cognitive-behavioural programmes have come to be seen as a standard form of rehabilitation for offenders in the United Kingdom. However, the majority of research has tended to evaluate the programmes purely within the evidence-based context of the ‘What Works’ criminal justice agenda. By placing the programmes within their social and political context, this article suggests that they function as neo-liberal regimes of governance that aim to ‘responsibilise’ offenders. Through an analysis of interviews with probation practitioners, the article explores how ‘othering’ discourses relating to offenders intersected with gendered, classed and ‘raced’ social identities. Consequently, young white, working-class masculinities were constructed within this educational environment as impulsive, irresponsible and ‘cognitively deficient’. Thus, the article calls for a discursive shift away from cognitive-behavioural rehabilitation techniques and towards more genuinely inclusive, socially just, and holistic educational programmes for probationers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
ISSN:01425692
DOI:10.1080/01425692.2012.723871