“Give it a Try”: experiences of black, Asian and minority ethnic young men in a prison-based offender personality disorder service

Abstract

Purpose Within the current offender personality disorder (OPD) pathway in the UK, black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) populations are underrepresented. Fewer BAME offenders are engaging with services despite being proportionately identified for inclusion and referred on to the pathway. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative study explored the experiences of 11 BAME men engaged in a prison-based OPD service for young offenders to identify the highlights and challenges of engagement within the service and to what extent they experienced a sense of inclusion/belonging. Findings Thematic analysis was used to identify three overarching themes and sub-themes. Why am I going to be an Outcast? describes the barriers to engagement encountered by the participants; and Give it a Try and Nothing but Respect describe the process of overcoming these barriers. Barriers revolved around the experiences of judgement, alienation and hopelessness. These were overcome through peer encouragement, developing relationships with staff and freedom to regulate levels of engagement. Practical implications Practice and policy implications are considered to support similar services in addressing the barriers to engagement faced by BAME individuals. Areas for future research are also recommended. Originality/value Currently, no research has directly explored the under-representation of young BAME offenders with emerging personality disorder in the OPD pathway. The findings provided an insight into some of the difficulties these young BAME offenders faced when accessing this service, alongside aspects which maintained their engagement.

Exploring ethnicity and personality disorder in a UK context: a scoping review of the literature

“…The prevalence of personality disorder for white British, black/mixed and Asian/mixed populations is displayed in Table 3. Of the 10 included studies, nine studies reported prevalence data (Crawford et al, 2012;Garrett et al, 2011;Geraghty and Warren, 2003;Hossain et al, 2018;Hunter et al, 2019;Leese et al, 2006;McKenzie et al, 2019;Pereira et al, 2005 andRaffi andMalik, 2010). Five studies presented ethnicity data separately from personality disorder data (Crawford et al, 2012;McKenzie et al, 2019;Pereira et al, 2005;Leese et al, 2006;Hossain et al, 2018) and three studies comprised of samples where all participants were diagnosed with a personality disorder (Garrett et al, 2011;Geraghty and Warren, 2003;Raffi and Malik, 2010).…”

“…Ethnically racialised prisoners were also significantly less likely than white prisoners to have problems associated with personality disorder. Hunter, Craig and Shaw (2019) focus on an OPD pathway service in Aylsebury, England. Within this study they make reference to prevelance and draw comparisons with personality disorder in prison populations.…”

“…Ethnic diversities are referred to OPD services proportionately, however, their engagement with OPD services is reported disproportionality, owing to people from ethnically diverse backgrounds being more likely to decline OPD involvement post referral (Jolliffe et al , 2017). Within the Hunter et al (2019) study, qualitative interviews with service users were conducted to understand ethnically racialised community experiences. The findings describe discussions of intersectionality as a barrier to fit in, but it is highlighted that this is not focussed on ethnicity alone, but instead also includes age, gender, trauma histories and personality difficulties.…”

“…Prevalence interestingly in criminal justice populations is reported to be higher for people from ethnically racialised communities with Hunter et al (2019) identifying those from ethnically racialised communities are incarcerated at higher rates than that of the general population.…”

“…Prevalence interestingly in criminal justice populations is reported to be higher for people from ethnically racialised communities with Hunter et al (2019) identifying those from ethnically racialised communities are incarcerated at higher rates than that of the general population. Whilst McKenzie et al (2019) states lower overall percentage of prisoners from ethnically racialised communities, this is not representative of the UK general population and, hence, there is still proportionately higher prevalence of ethnically racialised communities in prison.…”