Speakers
Naoki Tanaka
Workshop Session
In Japan, the Act for the Prevention of Recidivism came into effect in 2016, and the government has been pushing for collaboration with other organizations as a society-wide effort, including local governments and private organizations, to prevent recidivism. Peer support groups, in which ex-offenders support each other and work together to get back on their feet, are one of the most important counterparts to such collaboration. Unlike the conventional supervision and treatment of offenders by professionals for their rehabilitation, peer support is provided from an experience-based perspective that assists ex-offenders’ reintegration into society. Especially in recent years, peer support has been attracting attention from the perspective of desistance, and its effectiveness has been highly evaluated. This presentation will focus on the importance of peer support in facilitating desistance from crime and its effectiveness in cooperation with government.
Initially, I will present how peer support can help individuals disengage from crime, with the results of domestic and overseas research. In peer support groups, people with difficulties become peers and provide a safe place where they can be honest with themselves and prevent isolation through receptive attitudes and empathy toward each other. In the context of relationships with trusted peers, members share their own experiences, and through listening to others, they gain new insights and deepen their self-understanding, which leads to a process of inner transformation and rebuilding of prosocial identity. Peer support also gives its members an active role in contributing to others by drawing on their own past experiences. In the desistance research, it has been noted that the sense that one’s own life experiences have value and are useful in the recovery of others gives the person a sense of self-usefulness and motivates him to gain a proactive self as well as further recovery from his own crimes.
Next, good practices already in place in Japan and overseas will be introduced as resources for considering how to incorporate the experiences and knowledge of ex-offenders into recidivism prevention measures and how to maximize the strengths of peer support in the public social rehabilitation support system for offenders.
A well-known collaboration between ex-offenders and government is the “Expert by Experience” approach. This is an approach in which ex-offenders who have reintegrated into society after having experienced difficult situations firsthand help those who are now suffering from the very same situations, and offer the knowledge and perspectives gained from their experiences to policy making and service development. The Swedish peer support group KRIS has built a track record of success by supporting offenders in their recovery over many years and has gained the trust of society. KRIS is currently working with public institutions such as Swedish prisons, probation offices, and treatment centers for drug addicts. Also in Japan, peer support groups for drug addicts and social rehabilitation support organizations established by ex-offenders are working together to provide guidance and support for offenders to improve their lifestyle.
To conclude the presentation, I will share my thoughts on effective public-private partnerships to utilize the unique strengths of peer support and ex-offenders as experts by experience, including some points that we in the public sector should keep in mind.
