ABSTRACT
This chapter will consider the provision of non-custodial measures for specific minority offender groups, namely women, ethnic minorities and mentally disordered offenders. Standard non-custodial approaches (such as community punishment or the first tranche of cognitive-behavioural programmes) have often been designed for ‘mainstream’ white, male and mentally stable offenders, with little attention to minority groups. These programmes have been critiqued on the following grounds: their lack of relevance to the criminogenic needs of minority groups; attrition rates (although the evidence for different attrition rates is not clear: see Kemshall and Canton 2002); lack of use by sentencers; and negative offender views about the appropriateness of supervision programmes. The chapter will consider the extent to which minority offender groups are over-represented in the prison population; the evidence for differential criminogenic needs across these offender groups; and the limited research evidence on both the relevance and effectiveness of non-custodial approaches for these offender groups.
