Community perceptions of moral education as a response to crime amongst Bradford Pakistanis

While increasing attention from academics and the media focuses on the lives of Muslim communities in the west, little attention has so far been given to insiders' own perceptions of their social lives. This paper, borne out of broader research on their perceptions of crime, aims to analyse some internal discourses on moral education. The ethnographic data, collected between October 2004 and July 2005, is used to try to show the potentials and the pitfalls of formal (in mosques, madrasahs and schools) and informal (in family and community) means of provision of moral education. The paper argues that prevention of deviance through moral education seems to be neglected in favour of punishment, retrieval or rehabilitation. Female deviance, however, seems to be addressed by prevention strategies that are based on protection and the limitation of certain interactions, rather than on moral education.