Fighting a war alone’

Reintegration of ex-offenders from ethnic minority groups

Bibliographic Data

ID12914337
AuthorsJon So (Law Society of Hong Kong, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume7
Issue1
Pages64-77
Publication date2014-01-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueChina Journal of Social Work (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1752-5098 • E-ISSN: 1752-5101
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17525098.2014.882791
OpenAlexW1990023128
LanguageEN
References cited22

Reintegration into society is crucial for the rehabilitation of ex-offenders. However, in Hong Kong, ex-offenders from ethnic minority groups often face specific difficulties in reintegrating into society when they have completed their sentence and have been released from prisons and correctional institutions. Due to language barriers and cultural differences, as well as a sense of inferiority originating from their convictions, many ethnic minority ex-offenders are likely to experience difficulty in accessing support networks that can help in their rehabilitation, and to re-establish and sustain an identity as a law-abiding citizen, and face more barriers to reintegration than their Chinese counterparts. These barriers are further compounded by problems reintegrating into their own ethnic communities. Many ethnic minority ex-offenders have experienced isolation, stigmatization and discrimination following rejection from their own communities. This, in turn, further complicates their reintegration and can contribute to recidivism and an increase in the crime rate over time.This paper seeks to analyse the reintegration of ethnic minority ex-offenders into their own ethnic communities using the story of a single ethnic minority ex-prisoner to learn about the lived experience of being jailed and stigmatized. This was carried out to understand the difficulties encountered during reintegration into society, and to look at ways to remove any ‘labels’ bestowed upon ex-offenders following imprisonment.Finally, the main outcomes of this study are to identify facilitative factors for ethnic minority ex-offenders to aid their re-establishment and reintegration into society and consider possible implications for rehabilitative programmes for ethnic minority ex-offenders and crime prevention programmes for the community

Criminology · Ethnic group · Imprisonment · Political science · Prison · Recidivism · Sociology · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Homelessness and Social Issues · Law · Psychology

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