Country project - Research Paper Example

Many factors affect the negative perception of these individuals in wider society, including stereotyping, social stigma and multiple forms of discrimination. Because of this, there are many organisations that play a role in rehabilitating the ex-offender and finding them a new role in society, thus carving out a useful role for these individuals and playing a huge role in rehabilitation and lowering re-offense rates (Day & Doyle, 2010). The purpose of the following research is to examine the purpose of the voluntary sector in the rehabilitation of ex-offenders, particularly into employment into the United Kingdom.

The first section is the literature review, which will cover the voluntary organisations working with these offenders and the successes and failures of these organisations. It will then cover the ex-offenders and how they find a place within the world of employment, covering the various problems ex-offenders face within the workplace and the stigma of employers and fellow employees. Finally, the literature review will cover more general social inclusion and integration for these offenders, and improvements in these areas can be useful for finding ex-offenders successful employment and hopefully reducing the re-offending rate for these individuals.

Literature Review To properly analyse the ways in which a voluntary organisation can rehabilitate ex-offenders back into the community from an employment perspective, several different elements must be explored. To do this, the existing literature on the topic will be analysed to highlight important aspects of the rehabilitation of these individuals. This literature review will focus on the relationship between current voluntary organisations and their relationship with ex-offenders, exploring this relationship to highlight the function of these organisations in society.

The difficulties facing ex-offenders in the search for employment will also be covered, to highlight the difficulties that these voluntary organisations face in trying to rehabilitate these individuals. The final section will focus on social inclusion and integration for ex-offenders both in employment and wider society, again highlighting the challenges facing the voluntary organisations and the individuals.. Voluntary Organisations and Ex-Offenders Defining Voluntary Organisations Reducing re-offending rates by ex-offenders is an important aspect of social work, and is generally undertaken by various lead agencies, including those in the voluntary sector.

Many of these voluntary sector organisations forged a strong relationship with the probation service in the early 1990s, ensuring that voluntary rehabilitation organisations are now considered mainstream and are an important aspect of the legal service (Gibbs, 2001). These voluntary organisations are by their nature non-governmental and not-for-profit, and rely heavily on voluntary funding (Loeber & Farrington, 1998). However, the strong link between these