Author: Basia Spalek
ISBN No: 1-903240-89-1
Review date: 16/12/2025
No of pages: 148
Publisher: Willan Publishing, Cullumpton, Devon EX15 3AT
Year of publication: 11/09/2012
Brief:
Ken Rogers reviews Islam, Crime and Criminal Justice (2002), edited by Basia Spalek
So much has been written in the press referring to Islam, terrorism and riots. However criminology papers have often by-passed various religions. Having friends of various faiths, Hindu, Islam, Jewish, I cringe at the manner in which various religions are portrayed in reports on terrorism and other crime. I therefore welcomed the opportunity of reviewing this book. The editor Basia Spalek is a lecturer in Community Justice at the University of Birmingham. The editor refers to the significant media and political interest in the lives of British Muslims after 9-11 resulting in a backlash against Muslim communities. I disagree with Spalek on her description of this backlash, as I would argue it does not apply to all Muslim communities in the western world. This book explains the importance of focusing on criminal justice in respect of religions rather than ethnic diversity. I found particularly interesting a chapter on an analysis of young Muslim men’s involvement in criminal activity including violent disorder in Bradford. Cultural tradition is examined and provides reasons for underachievement by Muslim males. Such research highlights the urgent requirement to encourage change to bring about a more equal society.
<br><br><strong>
‘Institutional racism’
</strong><br><br>
The author also examines Muslim women’s experience of victimisation. An interesting chapter is on policing after Macpherson and the experiences of Muslim police officers. The author argues that there has been progress in police circles since the Macpherson report, albeit slow. What is disturbing in this particular paper is the author Douglas Sharp, a retired police officer argues that it is not surprising that officers from ethnic minorities leave the service prematurely and that we should perhaps be more surprised that any of them stay! Basia Spalek and David Wilson argue forcibly on the anti-Muslim resentment and institutional racism in UK prisons. I agree with the authors that there is an urgency to remove ‘imbalance between Christian and non-Christian religions’ and granting a more equal status for non-Christian faiths such as Islam. We all must appreciate there are more than one million British Muslims, and that ‘Islam’ does not order violent acts. Although part of the research for this book involves police officers, there is no reference to private security. Then I have yet to hear or read of discrimination within the private policing sector. This publication raises many important issues and assists the reader to understand serious problems created by our own society.
