Sport in Prison: Exploring the Role of Physical Activity in Correctional Settings

Research output: Book/ReportBook

Abstract

Although prison can present a critical opportunity to engage with offenders through interventions and programming, reoffending rates among those released from prison remain 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, for example 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.

Foreword by Lord David Ramsbotham
Original languageEnglish
PublisherRoutledge
Number of pages232
Edition1
ISBN (Electronic)9780203797051
ISBN (Print)9780415857611, 9780415716413
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 Nov 2013

Publication series

NameResearch in Sport, Culture and Society
PublisherRoutledge

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