Sport in Prison (Routledge Research in Sport, Culture and Society) - Softcover

Meek, Rosie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415716411 ISBN 13: 9780415716413

Publisher: Routledge, 2015

Synopsis

Although prison can present a critical opportunity to engage with offenders through interventions and programming, reoffending rates among those released from prison remain stubbornly high. Sport can be a means through which to engage with even the most challenging and complex individuals caught up in a cycle of offending and imprisonment, by offering an alternative means of excitement and risk taking to that gained through engaging in offending behaviour, or by providing an alternative social network and access to positive role models.

This is the first book to explore the role of sport in prisons and its subsequent impact on rehabilitation and behavioural change. The book draws on research literature on the beneficial role of sport in community settings and on prison cultures and regimes, across disciplines including criminology, psychology, sociology and sport studies, as well as original qualitative and quantitative data gathered from research in prisons. It unpacks the meanings that prisoners and staff attach to sport participation and interventions in order to understand how to promote behavioural change through sport most effectively, while identifying and tackling the key emerging issues and challenges.

Sport in Prison is essential reading for any advanced student, researcher, policy-maker or professional working in the criminal justice system with an interest in prisons, offending behaviour, rehabilitation, sport development, or the wider social significance of sport.

About this title

About the Author:

Rosie Meek is a chartered psychologist and Head of the Centre of Criminology and Sociology at Royal Holloway University of London, UK. She is a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar and holds honorary visiting appointments at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York and the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge.

Review:

"In light of current tough economic conditions, with sport sitting outside of the payment by results agenda, it is essential that, as with art, the impact of sport as a way of engaging with prisoners, helping them to rehabilitate or uniquely simply improving their health, is fully understood, and this book goes some way to achieving that. It is undoubtedly useful as an academic text, but also is written in a style that a PEI, Head of Reducing Re-offending or Governor could easily pick up and use to shape their thinking in a practical way. Meek has balanced literature from a combination of diverse fields and her research, in an original, interesting, yet easily accessible format for all types of readers." ―Paul Crossey, Prison Service Journal

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0415716411
• ISBN 13: 9780415716413
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 232