ABSTRACT
Attention has been focused on black offenders for a number of reasons. Black people, particularly black youth, have been socially constructed as a problematic group. The popularised myth of a black threat is frequently presented as challenging the existing social order, as urban ‘riots’, perpetrated by recalcitrant criminals who disturb the law-abiding, peaceful country (Hall et al. 1978; Solomos 1988). This book focuses on the proposition that racism within the probation service may affect the social-work service delivered to black offenders, and concerns itself with three central questions: 1 What evidence exists to either support or reject the idea that racism
or anti-racism exists in the probation service? 2 Is it possible to identify any differential processes operating in
probation work with white and black offenders? 3 How do ideas about race and racism affect probation practice? At the outset it should be acknowledged that the probation service is dominated by white people. In 1988, there were no black chief probation officers in post. Of the 250 assistant chief probation officers, two were black, while only eight of the 900 senior probation officers were black. Black probation officers only number 127 (1.9 per cent) of the 6,651 probation officers employed at all grades
(NAPO 1989). In the main, white probation officers make judgements about black offenders.
