This article aims to highlight how the structural and functional mechanisms of 12 step programmes (12SPs) might support criminal desistance. Drawing upon a small sample (n=7) from a wider PhD study (n=38) on peer work and desistance in prisoners, probationers and former probationers in England, narratives were reanalysed thematically to explore the desistance potential of 12SPs. The author has personal experience of 12SPs and has also worked within criminal justice (Prison Service). Themes identified suggest that 12SPs can be a ‘hook for change’ and allow for ‘changing of playground’. Tools offered through 12SPs can help structure and shape daily routines, develop discipline and manageability of self, and the collective responsibility of 12 step groups can develop social, human and recovery capital which might potentially support desistance supporting roles like employment and parenting. Not all 12 step members are involved with the criminal justice system, so this article presents a small sample of participants with extensive criminal careers. 12 step sponsorship (peer support) can allow for development of generativity, altruism and empathy where self becomes an ‘expert by experience’ thus transmitting experience, strength and hope to others. Redemptive narratives and moral agency were also evident. The aim of this article is therefore to help criminal justice practitioners to understand (from an ‘insider perspective’) the transformative potential that 12SPs might offer in supporting criminal desistance.

There is no aggravated offence for disability hate crime (DHC). The current legislation fails to place the disability characteristic on an equal footing with the characteristics of race and religion (for which there are aggravated offences). The effect of this is evident not only in law, which does not adequately punish the perpetrators of DHC, but also in the actions of the police who find it difficult to recognise and record DHC. In its 2021 report on hate crime laws the Law Commission has echoed its previous recommendation made in 2014 to extend aggravated offences that currently exist for race and religion to all other existing characteristics including disability. No changes were made in response to the 2014 report, and it is unlikely immediate changes will be made following the 2021 report. The police, however, are in a position to change how the current law relating to DHC is implemented if they improve their recognition and recording of it. This article examines the Metropolitan Police Service response to DHC, making recommendations that if implemented could have a national effect on how DHC is approached by the police.

Probation services in England and Wales supervise over 240,000 people sentenced by the courts or after they have left prison; around one in eight of these people are from a non-white ethnic minority (Ministry of Justice, 2022). Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation recently published their inspection report on the experiences of ethnic minority people on probation and staff. From fieldwork across five areas, the inspectors found significant problems in the quality of relationships between probation workers and ethnic minority people on probation, and reported significant gaps in the availability of services and interventions.

The probation service is at a crossroad in its history with the two sectors, the National Probation Service and the privatised Community Rehabilitation Companies being reunited. This is a good time to examine discrimination both within the criminal justice system, including probation, and in society to improve the service and experience for staff and service users. The article provides the reader with a detailed literature review on discrimination in criminal justice, its history, policy and practice over time. It starts with the beginning of anti-racist practice ideas and continues up to the present time, with the latest report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation (2021) thematic inspection. This report, like its two predecessors, in 2000 and 2004, details how people of colour, both probation professionals and clients have reported being disadvantaged. There is evidence to show that this is beyond personal reflection. Targets in subsequent action plans should include addressing disproportionality, outcomes of probation supervision, breach and recall, improving life chances for ethnic minorities and developing a race equality strategy for people on probation, drawing on the evidence base. This can only take place if practitioners hold anti-oppressive practice at the centre of professional practice, with the need to build and develop trusting relationships with their clients.

What explains the persistence of ethnic and racial disparities within the criminal justice system in the UK and other jurisdictions and how should they be addressed? Whilst there is far reaching agreement that such disparities exist and need to be eliminated or mitigated, the explanations for these differential outcomes are more contested.

This article outlines findings from surveys and interviews with young people and their parents/caregivers in a Youth Offending Service (YOS) in London. The YOS worked to a model of three elements, these being: trauma-informed practice; restorative justice; awareness of unconscious bias. The article presents a literature review that explores these key elements of the YOS model before presenting the findings that emerge from the data. We found the trauma-recovery approach builds resilience, hope for the future, and a positive sense of self-identity in young people