To see the other types of publications on this topic, follow the link: Desistance.
Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Desistance'
Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles
Consult the top 50 dissertations / theses for your research on the topic 'Desistance.'
Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.
You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.
Browse dissertations / theses on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.
1
Riordan, Matthew J. "Desistance Typologies: An Examination of Desistance Strategies Used Between Offender Groups." OpenSIUC, 2019. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/2626.
Full textAbstract:
Understanding desistance processes can have important implications for offender rehabilitation by informing treatment practitioners of offender strengths for reintegration. Despite this potential utility for program development, desistance remains difficult to measure consistently across studies. The present study attempts to establish the utility of the Measure of Criminal and Antisocial Desistance (MCAD) by comparing and contrasting desistance scores between a group of probationers and a group of civilly committed sex offenders. The results suggest that the MCAD is a valid and reliable measure that is able to observe differences in multidimensional desistance constructs between groups. Furthermore, suppression effects of desistance strategies on offenders under civil commitment were observed. Future research should explore the use of the MCAD and measures like it in creating more effective treatment programs for offenders.
2
Segev, Dana. "Societies and desistance : exploring the dynamics of desistance in England and Israel." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2018. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/20949/.
Full textAbstract:
When ex-offenders desist from crime, they do so within a given society, with its own unique cultural values and norms; typical ways of interacting with friends and acquaintances; social attitude towards crime and offenders; and its own way of doing justice. This is a rather obvious statement; nevertheless, studies of desistance to date have scarcely explored the role of wide contextual factors in processes of desistance. Furthermore, there is a dearth of comparative cross national studies that explore variations in desistance processes across societies, and thereby shed light on the influence of contextual factors. In this thesis, I begin to address this gap by exploring the role that cultures and social structures may play in shaping the dynamics of desistance. In particular, I undertook a cross national comparative study of desistance processes in England and Israel; two countries with different social-political systems and distinct cultural attributes. I employed a mixed methods approach which involved interviewing men who were desisting from crime and were supervised in the community, in each country; a statistical comparison into their use of time and space; interviews with people who worked with (ex)offenders; and a comparison of the broad social, economic, political, and cultural conditions in each country, which involved an analysis of data from the European Social Survey. The overarching objective was to develop insights about processes of desistance and the role of contextual or broad social factors in affecting them. Based on the data collected, I identified how contextual factors structured the pathways out of crime in each country; interacted with identity and agency; and gave rise to variances in the dynamics of desistance. Overall, I argue that desistance processes were shaped by the cultural and social contexts which enveloped them, such that external and internal mechanisms of these processes were ‘oriented’ in particular ways and in accordance with contextual factors. Throughout the thesis, I draw a thread between contextual factors, the social conditions in each country, and identity and agency, to illustrate how this ‘orientation’ takes place. In conclusion, I propose a contextual framework with which to conceptualise the influence of broad social factors on desistance from crime. This study provides new insights into the role of contextual factors in processes of desistance and the underlying mechanisms involved in these processes. It is hoped that the findings will assist future researchers to understand cultures and social structures and their input when studying desistance from crime.
3
Meléndez, Peretó Anna. "Restorative justice and desistance. The impact of victim-offender mediation on desistance from crime." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/309139.
Full textAbstract:
El objeto principal de la tesis doctoral es conocer la capacidad de la justicia restaurativa de incidir en el desistimiento del delito e identificar los posibles mecanismos explicativos entre la participación en programas de mediación y el cese en la conducta antisocial de los implicados en los procesos restauradores. Concretamente la tesis se centra en analizar el papel que juegan en el proceso restaurativo el uso de las técnicas de neutralización por parte del infractor, concretamente en qué medida el ofensor es capaz de reconocer haber causado un daño a otra persona y mostrar la capacidad de responsabilizarse por ello. Así mismo se pretende analizar si dicho proceso permite la expresión de actitudes, emociones y sentimientos que permitan llevar al infractor a la reflexión, al arrepentimiento y a expresar vergüenza por lo sucedido.
El estudio empírico se divide en dos fases con cuatro momentos distintos. La primera fase se comprende de tres momentos. El primero se sitúa al inicio del proceso, en el que se administra un cuestionario pre-proceso, cuyo objetivo es conocer la predisposición inicial del infractor a su participación en el proceso, así como su actitud hacia el conflicto. El segundo, tiene lugar durante el transcurso del proceso restaurativo y consiste en una observación no participante de la sesión de mediación conjunta. El objetivo es observar la actitud del infractor ante la interacción con la víctima, con la presencia de un tercero facilitador. En las sesiones indirectas se observa la última sesión entre infractor y mediador. Por último, inmediatamente después de acabar la sesión conjunta se administra al infractor un cuestionario post-proceso, con el fin de recoger la perspectiva del ofensor acerca del proceso de mediación, así como su postura hacia el conflicto una vez finalizado el proceso. La segunda fase consiste en una entrevista narrativa a los infractores de los procesos observados pasados un mínimo de seis meses desde la finalización del proceso de mediación. El contenido se centra en el pasado, en el presente y en el futuro, dando cabida al análisis de la situación vital anterior a la mediación, así como a su impacto y perspectivas de futuro.This research aims to examine the capacity of restorative justice to have an influence on desistance from crime, by focusing on mediation processes in order to identify whether there is a relationship between participating in a mediation process and taking the decision to desist from crime as well as to study the offenders' stability in a pro-social life, desisting from deviant behaviour. A particular aim of the research is to explore whether the victims’ participation in the process, restoration and the process itself can promote positive changes in the offenders’ behaviour after completion of the mediation programme dealt with in this research. First, to examine to what extent the offender can reduce the use of some neutralisation techniques. Specifically, the aim is to analyse whether the offender is able to recognise that there has been a victim, to admit having injured someone and to admit rather than deny responsibility for it. Second, the aim is to analyse whether mediation enables offenders to express guilt, remorse and shame and thus lead them to change their offending behaviour. And finally, to analyse whether the process has an impact on the offender’s ability to reflect on what happened and its consequence. The empirical study has two main parts divided in four different moments. The first part of the study has three stages. The first is at the beginning of the process and offenders have to complete a self-administered pre-test questionnaire -at the end of the first individual mediation session- in order to know their expectations of the process. The second takes place immediately after the mediation, and offenders complete a self-administered pot-test questionnaire. During direct mediation -when victim and offender met together with a mediator- non-participant observation is carried out to observe the interaction between parties. In indirect mediation the last session with the mediator is observed. The second part of the study, which takes place 6 months later, consists of a final narrative interview with the offenders who had been observed during mediation in order to learn more about the offenders' life course, their experience in mediation and its possible impact on their lives in the future.
4
Farmer, Mark. "Understanding desistance from sexual offending." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 2017. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.726337.
Full textAbstract:
This study was aimed at exploring the reasons why a group of men convicted of sexual offences against children desisted from further sexual offending. The research employed a qualitative methodology aimed at gaining a phenomenological understanding of participants' perceptions of the desistance process. A total of 32 participants were interviewed using a semi-structured life story interview. Data was analysed using thematic analysis, looking for commonalities across and within narratives. Theory was developed using a grounded theory methodology. The results show that desistance from sexual offending, for the study group, was largely a process of identity change. It involved a rejection of the label 'sex offender' and the adoption of a more positive, prosocial identity. As part of this process participants were inclined to minimise their offending and distance themselves from the perception that they were an 'offender'. They tended to describe their offending as being situational, and accounted for their offences as being an abberation. Social capital in the form of relationships and work was of great importance to the study group but did not appear to be directly linked to their desistance. However, future planning was a central part of the desistance process and, for most participants, involved plans for the development of new relationships and employment. The above themes are developed into a theory of desistance from sexual offending. The practical implications of the research are discussed. These include proposals to improve the treatment of men convicted of sexual offences: practitioners should emphasise responsibility for future actions rather than past ones, should encourage future planning, and give practical assistance for the development of new relationships and safe employment. They should encourage and support identity change, and should use a 'language of desistance, rather than defining people by the risk they present.
5
Walker, K. "Desistance from intimate partner violence." Thesis, Coventry University, 2013. http://curve.coventry.ac.uk/open/items/477fe020-13ab-4984-a62c-9f8d91afbbcf/1.
Full textAbstract:
Limited research has examined desistance from intimate partner violence (IPV). In this thesis the aims are to explore the role that individual, social/environmental factors and subjective change (personal agency) play in the process of desistance from male perpetrated IPV, and to develop and examine a multifactorial theory of desistance from male perpetrated IPV. As research about desistance has tended to more prominent in the criminological literature and in relation to general offending and delinquency, the aim of the first part of this thesis was to undertake two critical reviews on desistance from violence and desistance from IPV. It was found that research in these areas has been neglected. It was concluded that a psychological approach to desistance is required whereby the findings are integrated into the models developed in the criminological literature, in order to develop a multifactorial theory of desistance. Specifically, it was found that pertinent to IPV, severity and frequency of violence was related to desistance and typology research indicated that personality characteristics might distinguish desisters from persisters. The nature of the dyad within which the IPV takes place was also found to be relevant specifically to the study of desistance from IPV and therefore, in need of further examination. In the empirical study, group comparisons on the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory III subscales were conducted between a purposive sample of 37 desisters, 50 persisters and 49 controls. It was found that Cluster A and Cluster B disorders and disorders at a diagnostic level were more often reported in the groups that had used violence against an intimate compared to the control group. The rates and percentages of clinically meaningful traits and disorders were lower for the desisters than the persisters. Overall the desisters were more like the controls than the persisters across the personality traits and clinical syndromes measured. In the qualitative study, thematic analysis was conducted on data derived from interviews with 13 desisters, nine persisters, nine treatment facilitators and seven survivors. A conceptual model of desistance was developed that demonstrated desistance from IPV is a dynamic process that gradually unfolds over time. The model comprised three global themes: (i) The cycle of lifestyle behaviours (violent): ‘Old way of being’ (the experiences, behaviours and thinking of the men when they used violence); (ii) Catalysts for change (the triggers and transitions experienced that initiated change); and (iii) The cycle of lifestyle behaviours (non-violent); ‘New way of being’ (the experiences, behaviours and thinking of the men when they stopped using violence). The integrated findings illustrate that the path from persistence to desistance is neither linear, nor shared by all IPV offenders. A complex interaction between structure and agency characterised the process. Future research needs to adopt a longitudinal design to gain a clearer understanding of the temporal sequencing of events leading to desistance, and also to determine whether the characteristics that differentiated the groups studied change over time. In addition, it is proposed that individual assessment is required for each offender of IPV. Treatment could then be developed to meet individual needs, which may increase the effectiveness of rehabilitation for IPV perpetrators.
6
Kay, Christopher Peter. "Desistance in transition : exploring the desistance narratives of intensive probationers within the context of 'transforming rehabilitation'." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2016. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/desistance-in-transition-exploring-the-desistance-narratives-of-intensive-probationers-within-the-context-of-transforming-rehabilitation(2e11242f-5872-4725-baec-67ab5b384b72).html.
Full textAbstract:
Desistance from crime can generally be considered to constitute a transition from a state of offending to one of non-offending, along with the underlying processes that support this transition. While the available literature has examined the impact of social structures such as employment, relationships and family formation on desistance transitions, the impact of involvement in perhaps less influential social structures has been largely overlooked. Not only this but, with a few notable exceptions (for instance Barry, 2010a), there is a shortage of literature surrounding the impact of this transitional phase itself, and the limiting factors associated with it, on to the ability for ex-offenders to maintain desistance. If, as is often the case for young adults, desistance transitions are undertaken alongside numerous other transitions (such as the transition into adulthood and between youth and adult criminal justice provisions), how do ex-offenders negotiate all of these transitions in their early stages and how do wider structural changes impact upon behaviours being attempted within this multiple liminality? Through the use of 18 double narrative interviews with probationers on an Intensive Community Order, 10 semi structured interviews with probation staff, 6 months of observations and the collection of probationer “End Data”, the current research was able to understand the ways in which initial desistance transitions are maintained by probationers within the context of a probation service which was transitioning around them. It was found that the disruption to probation supervision (which was deemed to be a structural source of support outside the “big structures” evidenced in the literature), impacted upon the rhythms and routines of probationers in the sample, challenging their ontological security and fledgling pro-social identities developed in this transitional state.
7
Bain, Andrew John. "Social intervention : supporting success, guiding desistance." Thesis, University of Portsmouth, 2013. https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/social-intervention(be50ccbf-311e-4077-afd0-fa758dd2cc61).html.
Full textAbstract:
Education, training and employment (ETE) are considered of great importance to desistance from crime and the rehabilitation of the offender (Clarke, 2010; Farrall, 2002; SEU: 2002). This study sets out to investigate the use and success of such an intervention in a local Probation Trust area, with a convenience sample drawn from a population of adult offenders (aged 18 years+). It makes use of a triangulation (mixed) methodology conducted through a series of assisted questionnaires undertaken with offenders and semi-structured interviews, with both offenders and staff members, to better evaluate the success of such a programme, as well as assessing the experience and understanding of the individual participants. Data collected during the assisted questionnaire – both in specific answers and open conversation – and in the follow-up interviews suggest a positive experience for the individual. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the provision of ETE provides for a clear and supportive service, which helps the individual to move away from crime in an informed and positive manner. This is a finding supportive of earlier work completed in the field suggesting that desistance is a process of moving away from crime and not the end result (Laub and Sampson 2001). Much of the evidence points towards a greater concentration upon those outcomes which are not always seen as being target led or funding-related, which have often been termed as soft skills and soft-outcomes. Indeed, a number of the findings of this study are reflective of those reported by McNeill and Weaver (2010: 6), providing for honesty and clarity; informal and respectful relationships; recognising the importance of the social for the individual. It is believed that these similarities only strengthen the conclusions drawn within the thesis. Consequently, the thesis observes ETE as a service which supports desistance through one-to-one engagement, treating the offender as an individual in need of assistance and guidance which focuses on the future rather than the past, and identifies the need to replace a focus upon risk with a one-to-one desistance focused management as the way forward for the probation service.
8
Glynn, Martin. "Black Men’s Desistance The racialisation of crime/criminal justice systems and its impacts on the desistance process." Thesis, Birmingham City University, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.572796.
Full text
9
Berglund, Johannes. "Narratives of Desistance : A Social Cognitive Approach." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Sociologiska institutionen, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-58196.
Full textAbstract:
In this thesis I have investigated the process of self-schematic transformation that has been argued that offenders undergo in order to desist from crime. In this thesis I have used narrative interviews with twelve desisting offenders consisting of five non-violent offenders and seven violent offenders. I have analysed these narratives using a social cognitive perspective in order to seek an understanding of the self-schemas of the offenders. The results show that the desistance is the result of a longer process and the turning point experienced by the participants were the high point of this process. Social influences were highly important for both groups. Both groups were low in agency, with the exception to their new selves and the desisting process; still, the violent offenders were somewhat higher than the non-violent offenders. In general both groups used outside sources to explain their past crimes and substance abuse, though the violent offenders did this in less extent. Further, the analysis showed that the self-schema of the desisting offenders could be divided into three parts; the former self, the true self, and the new self, or who they used to be, who they have always been, and who they are now. The degree to which the offenders expressed these different selves varied between the two groups.
10
Farrall, Stephen. "Probation, social context and desistance from crime." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.365436.
Full text
11
Hung, Suet-wai. "Desistance among young offenders in Hong Kong." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1998. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B29725549.
Full text
12
Barr, Una Mairead. "Voicing desistance : female perspective on giving up crime." Thesis, University of Central Lancashire, 2017. http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/20458/.
Full textAbstract:
Criminological theory and research has historically focused on explaining how people get into crime and much less on how and why they stop, despite the perennial finding that most of those with convictions do eventually stop offending. The very meaning of ‘desistance’ however has been much contested, yet has broadly been linked with themes such as maturity, adult social bonds, agency, identity and hope (Bottoms et al, 2004). Even more concerning, however, is the further marginalisation of already marginalised groups within the vast majority of desistance literature. The bulk of research in this area can be noted for the salience of the white, male perspective of offending trajectories. By revisiting maturational, social bonds and subjective theories of desistance through the eyes of women traveling desistance journeys, as well as considering current criminal justice approaches, this thesis gives a female voice to desistance research. The methodology which informs this work is observation research and individual narrative interviews of females with convictions. I argue for a feminist approach to desistance, which recognises that a huge proportion of women in the CJS stem from backgrounds of abuse, economic disadvantage and alcohol, drug and mental health issues. Yet we must move away from the dichotomy of narratives of victimisation and survival and recognise that women have agency. We must challenge the neo-liberal and patriarchal approach to desistance which promotes women's role as care givers and unpaid volunteer workers. Women's desistance can challenge neo-liberal, patriarchal constructs much in the same way that women's offending often does.
13
Purohit, Neha. "Working with female offenders : a process of desistance." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2017. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/7849/.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis considers the experiences of female offenders in their efforts to desist from offending. It also explores the potential impact of an intervention programme in the process of desistance. The first chapter introduces desistance and outlines the aims of the thesis. The second chapter is a systematic literature review of the risk factors associated with female offending. It was found that mental health needs, parental stress, substance misuse and adverse experiences are associated with female offending. The third chapter explores desistance in a sample of adult female offenders. Quantitative analysis found that Intermediate Outcomes Measurement Instrument (IOMI) showed significant improvements in areas including hope, interpersonal trust and impulsivity when women engaged in the Geese Theatre group. Interviews with female offenders showed that the following themes were identified as being associated with desistance: Skills and Attributes; The Usefulness of Programmes; Support; Purpose Driven Life; Risk Factors; and Consequences. The findings lent support to the desistance theories of cognitive transformation; self-control; self-identity; social control; and social capital. Chapter four is a critique of the IOMI. In the final chapter the findings of each chapter are discussed with reference to the need for further research and the implications for current practice.
14
Kelly, Jane Frances. "Narratives of gang desistance amongst former gang members." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29549.
Full textAbstract:
Gangs are found all over the world, including South Africa. In Cape Town specifically, gang involvement is a critical problem in need of intervention. Despite this, little research has explored the perspectives of former gang members on leaving and staying out of the gang. Understanding how and why individuals desist from gangs has important implications for policymakers, the criminal justice system, and in the development of effective interventions, which is particularly important in low- and middle-income countries like South Africa, where very little is known about desistance from gangs, and where economic and other conditions that may lead to gang involvement are different from those in high-income countries. Drawing on a narrative theoretical framework as well as the theory of critical realism, this research sought to examine how former South African gang members understand and make sense of their desistance from gang involvement, focusing on exiting the gang life as well as maintaining a reformed lifestyle after exiting, despite the challenges this may present. Two rounds of life history interviews were conducted with twelve former gang members from a Cape Town community with a high prevalence of gangsterism. Thematic narrative analysis was used to analyse the interview data. Findings revealed that the participants’ narratives of desistance focused on a profound transformation in identity in which they moved away from the hardened, stoic gangster identity and embraced a more prosocial identity, such as that of a positive role model in the community. This transformation was a process punctuated with key turning points (such as incarceration or becoming religious) that prompted active reflection on the gang life and contributed to their decision to desist. The participants’ narratives also focused on their agency in the desistance process, which included forming a purposive intention to change their lives, committing to and maintaining this change, in spite of challenges they faced (for example, a relapse into drugs), taking personal responsibility for their pasts and striving for more independence in the future. Importantly, it also involved actively drawing on protective resources (such as meaningful and practical support from loved ones and religious belief systems) and prosocial identities (for example, being a caring husband and father) available to them within their environments, thus illustrating how the desistance process is an interaction between inner and outer resources. Therefore, it is imperative that interventions that assist desisting gangsters are targeted not only on an individual level, but a contextual level too, ensuring that individuals have access to the kinds of resources in their environment that will support their desistance.
15
Bares, Kyle Jordan. "Reconceptualizing Desistance: An Examination of the Effect of Latent Adult Behaviors and Latent Adult Cognitions on Desistance from Crime Over Time." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1626013997380126.
Full text
16
Hunter, Ben. "Narratives of Change: Exploring Desistance from White-Collar Crime." Thesis, Keele University, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.499349.
Full text
17
Weaver, Beth. "The story of the Del : from delinquency to desistance." Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 2013. http://oleg.lib.strath.ac.uk:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=25506.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis explores the individual, relational and structural contributions to the desistance process as they occur within and between six individuals in Scotland who comprised a naturally forming group. Contemporary theoretical explanations of the desistance process share a tendency to view social relations as a by-product of, or interplay between, individual action and structure. Equally, contemporary methodological approaches to desistance research tend to study individuals rather than groups, precluding an analysis of the role of the group in shaping and affecting offending and desistance, and thus how individual, relational, cultural and social contexts influence onset, persistence, and desistance. The unique methodological approach of studying a naturally forming group in this thesis has generated new empirical and theoretical insights into the dynamics of offending and desistance. This study has revealed the role of friendship groups, intimate relationships and families of formation and employment in, differently, triggering individuals' reflexive evaluation of concerns, priorities and practices - resulting, variously, in a diminution of the desirability of offending, or in influencing, consolidating and sustaining commitments to desist. Both the manner of relating and the reciprocal and mutual orientation for these individuals-in-relation towards the maintenance of a given social relation emerged as significant in understanding the relational contributions to the change process. This thesis advances an alternative conceptual and investigative framework that gives proper recognition to individual actions, social relations and social systems and their particular inner characteristics, properties and influences. This thesis further extends current theoretical understandings of processes of desistance by elaborating what triggers reflexivity and what different forms of reflexivity entail, both of which have received limited attention in the literature to date.
18
Parker, Jameson Ross. "Desistance from crime: An examination of offenders on probation." OpenSIUC, 2010. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/288.
Full textAbstract:
AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF JAMESON R. PARKER, for the Masters of Arts degree in CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE, presented on MAY 24, 2010, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: DESISTANCE FROM CRIME: AN EXAMINATION OF OFFENDERS ON PROBATION. MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Daryl Kroner Discovering the reasons offenders begin committing crime is the driving force behind much criminological research. However, there is a growing trend to research the reasons why criminals stop offending. The present study aimed to discover if offenders who have highly responsible and less disengaged attribution styles indicate more positive desistance factors. Six convicted offenders serving probationary periods were assessed two different times. Each offender was grouped according to their attribution style and subsequently tested for an increase in desistance factors (peer associations, employment, and family relationships. Independent samples t-tests indicate no significant differences between the two groups on measures of desistance. Additional qualitative analysis confirms the results of the t-tests. Post hoc demographic analysis revealed only minor differences between offenders who completed the research study and those who did not.
19
Bartle, Hamish. "Staying stopped: maintaining desistance from child sexual abuse following treatment." Thesis, University of Auckland, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2292/12842.
Full textAbstract:
Despite the fact that the majority of Child Sex Offenders (CSOs) do not reoffend
(Hanson & Bussi��re, 1998), very little is known about what supports and motivates
CSOs to maintain their desistance. While the Relapse Prevention Model of CSO
treatment (Marlatt, 1985; Pithers, 1990; Ward & Hudson, 2000) suggests that
desisting CSOs are vigilant for risk and motivated by a desire to avoid reoffending,
the Good Lives Model (Laws & Ward, 2011; Ward & Marshall, 2004) suggests that
desisting CSOs have replaced sexual offending with pro-social means of attaining
their goal of a satisfying life. To date, the views of CSOs have not been included in
the consideration of these matters. The present study sought to investigate what a
group of men who received treatment related to sexual offending against children
described as being the motives and supports for their desistance. Men from two
New Zealand community treatment programmes who had been living in the
community apparently without reoffending were interviewed and the transcripts
analysed via thematic analysis. Consistent with previous rehabilitation literature,
participants described a number of supports for their desistance. Stigma and
negative consequences were described by participants as both undermining and
motivating desistance. Participants appeared to use both risk-focused, avoidancebased
motives, and ���good life���-focused, approach-based motives to understand and
structure their desistance, and thus both Relapse Prevention and the Good Lives
Model were required to describe their desistance processes. Consistent with
previous research, participants also implicated processes of self-image in their
desistance (Maruna, 2001). However this process appeared to differ to that
identified in general and violent offenders, supporting the need for specific research
into CSO desistance. Theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are
considered.
20
Landale, Sarah A. "Trajectories, transitions and turning points : sports, substance misuse and desistance." Thesis, Durham University, 2012. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3623/.
Full textAbstract:
Despite well-established health benefits of physical exercise (Department of Health 2004; 2010; Pang et al., 2008), sport has played relatively little part in adult alcohol and drug treatment programmes. Limited research examines the contribution sporting programmes may make to people in their recovery from addiction. However, natural recovery research (overcoming addiction without formal treatment) identifies that meaningful activities are a key part of resolving alcohol and drug problems. At six-month intervals, this study conducted three individual, in-depth interviews with 19 male adults with substance misuse problems. They were engaging regularly on Second Chance, a sports programme for socially excluded groups, as part of their recovery from addiction. The study identified two patterns of behaviour. One group were desisting. In addition to Second Chance they had occupations which provided them with networks of support, and their narratives reflected hope and self-efficacy. The second group had few occupations, low self-efficacy, and high levels of anxiety, and their time was spent with other similarly situated people. Employing a developmental, life course theory of informal social controls (Laub and Sampson 2003), this study prospectively examined desistance from substance misuse in the context of Second Chance. The theory suggests that desistance and persistence from crime can be meaningfully understood by examining individuals’ routine activities, informal social controls and agency. Turning points are a key concept in life course theories, defined as change in the long term pathway which was initiated at an earlier point in time (Elder 1998). This study suggested that Second Chance was a “window of opportunity for change” (Groshkova and Best 2011:33), within which a turning point was being experienced by some of the interviewees. The turning point was an identity transformation, and this was facilitated through a confluence of meaningful routine activities, informal social controls, and, personal agency.
21
GUNNISON, ELAINE KRISTIN. "UNDERSTANDING FEMALE DESISTANCE FROM CRIME: EXPLORING THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL RELATIONSHIPS." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2001. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin996077637.
Full text
22
Pryboda, Jennifer. "Working with sexual offenders : strength-based approaches and desistance factors." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2015. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/27888/.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis aims to provide a broad overview of topics relating to desistance factors and strength-based approaches to working with male sex offenders. It incorporates diverse methods, including a systematic review, an empirical study, an individual case study, and a critique of an actuarial risk assessment. Following an introductory chapter, Chapter 2 presents a systematic evaluation of 15 studies reporting on the relationship between denial or minimisation of offending and recidivism by adult male sex offenders. The highest quality studies (n = 5) do not find a consistent relationship between these variables. Some support for the view of denial as a protective mechanism against recidivism is found. Four studies exploring categorical denial find no relationship between denial and recidivism, lower recidivism rates by categorical deniers. Higher recidivism rates are found for low static risk and intra-familial offenders in categorical denial. In Chapter 3, predictors of belief in sex offender redeemability are explored in participants working or volunteering with sex offenders, and participants not working or volunteering with offenders. For those working or volunteering with sex offenders, stronger redeemability beliefs were predicted by being less punitive, younger and having a professional role which involved delivering treatment or working with sex offenders in a therapeutic capacity. For participants who did not work or volunteer with offenders, belief in sex offender redeemability was predicted by being less punitive, male, younger and endorsing more situational (rather than dispositional) explanations for sex offending. For female participants, those working or volunteering with sex offenders were less punitive and held stronger redeemability beliefs than females who did not work or volunteer with offenders. This difference was not found for male participants. Chapter 4 describes a strength-based approach to the assessment, formulation and treatment of an adult male sex offender with an intellectual disability in a prison-setting. The client was deemed to have responded positively to the strength-based treatment approach and progress was made in addressing his treatment need relating to offence-supportive attitudes, antisocial peer network and coping skills. Treatment need remained in relation to sexual interests and intimacy deficits. Positives in the strength-based approach included the use of the ‘success wheel’ to encourage focus on pro-social goals, encouragement to develop an adaptive, pro-social identity and the positive impact on the client’s motivation for change. However, restrictions resulting from the prison setting and standardised framework were highlighted in terms of their impact on strength-based practice. Chapter 5 critiques the Risk Matrix 2000 actuarial assessment tool for use with intellectually disabled sex offenders. It finds limited empirical support for using the Risk Matrix 2000 with this population and raises concern that high stake decisions are made based on information from this assessment. Further research to explore its reliability and validity for use with this client group is recommended. The Assessment of Risk Manageability for Intellectually Disabled Individuals who Offend Sexually is highlighted as an assessment tool with stronger empirical support in terms of predictive validity. It is found to be a more ethically defensible tool than the Risk Matrix 2000, given its holistic consideration of strengths in addition to deficits. Chapter 6 concludes that the thesis achieves its overall aims of developing understanding of desistance factors and strength-based approaches to working with sex offenders. A model is developed which proposes several mechanisms through which the desistance process is enabled or impeded for sex offenders. This model incorporates consideration of denial, staff and public attitudes about sex offenders, community reintegration, social capital, self-identity, static risk, supervision, strength-based practice and treatment effectiveness. Future research is recommended to empirically test this model, through further exploration of the potential protective function of denial for sex offenders, exploration of additional variables explaining variation in redeemability beliefs and exploration of the effectiveness of strength-based approaches to assessment and intervention for sex offenders.
23
Robertson, Robert Lyle. "Criminal desistance : life opportunities and hermeneutic circles of self-definition." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2013. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/61986/1/Robert_Robertson_Thesis.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
The emic perspective of criminal desistance (ex-offenders’ personal explanations of how they gave up crime) is largely ignored by criminology. This thesis attempts to address this absence of the storyteller’s perspective by inviting desisters to participate in the exploration and interpretation of their individual desistance journeys. Significant attention is drawn to the importance of philosophical self-enquiry to personal change. This detailed journey through the desistance stories of five ex-offenders has produced an emphatic re-statement of the need for the non-judgemental listener as the beginning point of cathartic healing in damaged lives.
24
Bailey, Maykal. "The Trajectory of Gang Membership: The Desistance from a "Deviant" Identity." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/31991.
Full textAbstract:
The public acts of violence during the summer of 2012 in Toronto brought the theme of gangs back to the forefront in Canadian media coverage. As renewed debates argued old subject matters, our understanding of gangs was not able to diverge from its endless roundabout.
This paper inverts the study of gangs that has classically looked towards the gang as a collective to explain its sub-cultural delinquent and sometimes violent tendencies, and explores the individualized interpretation of gang membership from the perspective of four Latin-Canadian males from the Greater Toronto Area. This study takes on the challenge of observing the trajectory of gang membership based on the first hand experiences of self-proclaimed ex-gang members and through an in-depth dialogue with these participants, ventures through the turning points that led these individual actors through the process of onset; commitment and desistance.
This exploration into the lived experiences of gang membership is seen through a Symbolic Interactionist lens and views gang membership as one of many identities that can actively be portrayed by the social being. In this perspective, the concepts of gangs and gang membership are described as a subjective experience completely open to interpretation, but guided by the flow of unique interactions that these individuals encountered within a variety of complex situations and environments. That which is being observed herein is the process of how the participants interacted with their existing environments and the circumstances produced by them, highlighting the momentous events that continuously defined the individuals understanding of their own self concept as a gang member up until the point of non-membership.
What was observed by a dissection of the interviewee’s accounts was that the onset of gang membership was influenced primarily by a feeling of disassociation and alienation which the participants actively sought to suppress, whereby the idea of belonging to a gang offered the remedy. The aspect of commitment was shown to be focused more towards upholding the identity of gang membership and their reputation than towards the gang itself. Reinforcing the identity maintained the individual’s social status and relevance amongst their peers, solidifying the aspired identity of gang membership. Finally, the process of desistance surfaced once the gang member identity no longer seemed beneficial. Life threats, a re-emergence of the feeling of solidarity, the experience of disloyalty and the acceptance of another identity as being more imperative were factors that separately influenced the move for the discontinuance for the projection of the gang member identity. Although the participants admit to and self proclaim ex-membership, they do nonetheless acknowledge that the gang mask could once again be put back on.
25
Nugent, Brown Briege. "Locked out, locked in : young people, adulthood and desistance from crime." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/23566.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis presents findings from a longitudinal study of young people living in poverty providing a unique insight into their lives. The research set out to explore three themes, namely how young people end contact successfully (or not) from support, their experiences of the ‘transition to adulthood’ and also what triggered, helped and hindered those who were trying to desist from offending. It was revealed that a small number never left Includem’s Transitional Support, a unique service set up in Scotland providing emotional and practical help for vulnerable young people in this age group. For those who did leave, many had limited to no other support in their lives and were reluctant to ask for help again even when they were in real need. They were all acutely aware of their precarious situation. ‘Adulthood’ denoted certainty for them and was not viewed as a feasible destination. Members of the group dealt with this differently. Almost all retained hope of achieving their goals and in doing so suffered a form of ‘cruel optimism’, conversely, a smaller number scaled back on their aspirations, sometimes even to the extent of focusing on their immediate day to day survival. Over the course of the study most participants became more hopeless, isolated and withdrawn. Although they still wanted to achieve their original ambitions of having a job, own place and being settled this appeared less likely over time. A key finding from this study is that those who managed least had accepted the idea that independence was about ‘going it alone’ and proving oneself by oneself, but on the other hand, those who coped better viewed independence as being interdependence and welcomed help from others. It emerged that those who had offended had done so to achieve a sense of belonging, rejected by home and education. By desisting they moved from having some element of status and respect to then living a legitimate but often impoverished existence overshadowed by their past. This study opens up a series of questions about the pains of desistance and the pains of poverty. It is suggested that considering desistance and adulthood in terms of citizenship would emphasise the individual’s and societies interdependence so that rights, responsibilities and potential are recognised. At present, I argue that there is a mutual dismissal. Society dismisses impoverished youth and they in turn do not see that society holds anything for them. I call for renewed hope so that inaction and continued poverty and inequality are not rendered inevitable, and for criminologists to also embrace the idea of interdependence so that this issue is dealt with beyond the parameters of this field.
26
King, Samuel Joshua. "Going straight on probation : desistance transitions and the impact of probation." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2011. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/3172/.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis explores primary desistance as a transitional phase between offending and crime cessation. Recent work has explored desistance within an integrated theoretical framework, combining elements of both structure and agency theories, and this thesis builds upon this by exploring the initial transitions towards desistance, and the prospective strategies to sustain it, among a group of adult male offenders under Probation supervision. Where agency has been employed in such accounts its conceptualisation has tended to be vague, and this thesis seeks to address this by examining agency as the temporally located reflexive deliberations of adult offenders upon their future goals and present social environment. This allows for the identification of individuals’ future goals in relation to desistance and the strategies that they intend to pursue to achieve them, in relation to their personal and social contexts. The thesis finds that recent Probation policy has delimited the role of supervising officer towards that of Offender Manager, which inhibits the relationship between officer and offender such that would-be desisters tend to revert to past repertoires of thought and action in their strategies. This is likely to sustain the social contexts that led to offending in the past, and is likely to hinder desistance in the future.
27
Stuewig, Jeffrey. "Factors related to the desistance of crime in a longitudinal sample." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/284203.
Full textAbstract:
This study examines characteristics of those who desist from compared to those who persist in delinquency over a two year span. Stability of antisocial behavior is a well accepted finding in the social sciences. In addition, many other individual characteristics associated with crime, such as impulsivity, are considered to be stable. These individual characteristics also show a relationship to long term negative outcomes of adult criminality and poor work history. Other variables that correlate with adolescent delinquency are parental monitoring, peer deviancy, and school attachment. While there is stability in antisocial behavior, there is also change; many individuals desist from delinquency as they age. Participants in this study were adolescents involved in a longitudinal study (N = 278). Results show a high degree of stability in delinquency as well as in other correlates of delinquency. Parental monitoring, peer deviancy, and school attachment are all related to delinquency, yet when the subjects are divided into persisters (n = 73) versus desisters (n = 35), these same variables are not significantly related to desistance. This suggests that the variables related to onset may be different from those related to desistance from delinquency. Nonetheless, if one takes a more dynamic perspective of this relationship, change can be seen. Change in impulsivity, risk taking, temper, peer substance use, and school attachment relates to a deceleration in delinquent activity. Results are discussed from a developmental perspective.
28
Dunkley, Lisa R., and Charlene Harris. "Parents Shape Our Future: Desistance from Crime of Serious Juvenile Offenders." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2018. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/2964.
Full textAbstract:
The family serves as the primary socializing institution and a key predictor for the involvement of deviant activities for youths (Hoeve et al., 2011). Bonds between parent and child serve many purposes such as providing healthy attachment necessary to living a life without crime. Without bonds and feelings of love, deviant behaviors may ensue in children. The current study examined the impact of parental warmth on the prediction of desistance from crime among serious juvenile offenders using a cross sectional design. The sample of 14 to 17-year-old male and female offenders (N =1354) was composed primarily of ethnic minority youths. Results indicate that maternal warmth is a significant predictor for desistance across total, income and aggressive offending. However, paternal warmth is found to be a significant predictor for the income offending variety type only. These finding highlight the need for added supports for parents of juvenile offenders throughout the rehabilitation process. Advocacy, community resources and training efforts are needed to promote healthy parental/guardian relationships which will in return help juvenile offenders become successful desisters in the community. Additional research is needed to explore the changing dynamics of the family in society today as its impact on desistance from crime.
29
Bacon, Sarah Nicholson. "The implications for desistance of the developmental course of childhood aggressive behavior." College Park, Md. : University of Maryland, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1903/3879.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2006.Thesis research directed by: Criminology and Criminal Justice. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.
30
Murray, Cathy A. "Quest for identity : young people's tales of resistance and desistance from offending." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/1783.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis explores how young resisters and desisters in their teenage years maintain their resistance to and desistance from offending and asks to what extent they are agentic in the process. The term 'resister' refers to those who, according to a self-report survey, have never offended, and the term 'desister' to those who have offended and then ceased for at least twelve months. By situating desisters analytically adjacent to resisters, I have moved towards conceptualising desisters as current non-offenders. Desisters may have shared a past with persisters, as they have both offended. However, desisters share their current experience, that of maintaining non-offending, with resisters. It is this obvious, yet largely ignored, link between young resisters and desisters which underpins the thesis. Two qualitative methods, both of which elicited young people's own perspectives, were employed between 2003 and 2005. Secondary analysis of 112 qualitative interviews with resisters and desisters in their teenage years was conducted and peer led focus groups (in which a young peer, rather than an adult researcher, acted as the facilitator) were held with 52 teenage resisters. Young people's resistance to offending does not feature prominently in the literature. When it does, it is often associated with a state of innocence or passivity, while young desisters are said to 'grow out of' offending. This emphasis on an absence of offending, rather than on actively attained resistance, reflects an adult oriented view. The thesis challenges this by drawing on the sociology of childhood, a theoretical perspective which has not previously been applied to young people's resistance to and desistance from offending and which emphasises young people as agentic. Their agency is evidenced by the findings. Chapters Four and Five report how young people employ numerous strategies of resistance and desistance and Chapter Six how that they face trials and tribulations in maintaining their nonoffending, while Chapter Seven focuses on the 'being' rather than the 'doing' of sustaining non-offending. It is the work of Derrida that enables the argument to be taken a step further. Derrida's (1981) assertion is that binary oppositions are rarely neutral, but that one is the dominant pole. For example, in Western society the first of the following binary oppositions are usually regarded as the dominant or privileged pole: white/black, masculine/feminine, adult/child. In respect of the binary opposition at the heart of the current thesis, namely offender/non-offender, the non-offender is - from an adult perspective at least - the dominant pole and the non-offender is hailed as the norm. By contrast, several findings in the thesis point to the fact that the dominant pole in the binary opposition for young people is the offender rather than the non-offender. First, the discourse of young resisters and desisters suggests a view of the offender rather than non-offender as the norm. Secondly, many resisters and desisters face trials and tribulations, such as bullying, relating to their nonoffending status. Yet, if it were the case that the non-offender was the dominant pole and was privileged by young people (as it is in the adult population), resisters would not be penalised in such ways for not offending. Thirdly, some of the strategies used by resisters, such as involvement in anti-social behaviour, signify an attempt to compensate for their non-offending status. Again, if the non-offender was the dominant pole in the binary opposition, far from resorting to mechanisms to compensate for their non-offending behaviour, this behaviour would be encouraged, as it is by adults. This inverted world has implications for young resisters and desisters. Their resistance is to be understood in the context of an expectation of offending, rather than non-offending. Contrary to the notion of the pull of normality bringing desisters back to a non-offending state, the pull of normality among young desisters - and many resisters - is better understood as being towards offending. Resistance, evidenced by the strategies and trials and tribulations of resisters and desisters, is against this pull. Moreover, as non-offending is the modus operandi in the adult world, to be an adult non-offender requires less effort. For a young person, being a non-offender is more challenging than it is for adults and maintenance of resistance constitutes a struggle not previously reflected in adult representations. Adults, not having taken account of the different modus operandi of the young person's world, have not attributed agency to resistance and have underestimated young people's struggle to maintain resistance. The strategies demanded of resisters and desistcrs to maintain non-offending and the trials and tribulations which they face when they do have heretofore been overlooked.
31
Calverley, Adam. "An exploration investigation into the processes of desistance amongst minority ethnic offenders." Thesis, Keele University, 2009. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.502985.
Full textAbstract:
In contrast to the widespread public and academic focus on ethnicity in relation to engagement in offending, existing research has largely overlooked whether processes associated with desistance from crime vary by ethnicity. This is despite known ethnic differences in factors identified as affecting disengagement from offending such as employment, place of residence, religious affiliation and family structure providing good reasons for believing differences would exist. This thesis explores the processes associated with desistance from crime among offenders drawn from some of the principal minority ethnic groups in the United Kingdom. Data were obtained from qualitative interviews with 33 male offenders who were of Indian, Bangladeshi, and Black and dual heritage ethnic origin, had a previous history of offending and were identified (in collaboration with their probation officers) as being in the process of desisting. Interviews explored life histories, factors responsible for their desistance, strategies to avoid further offending, access to resources, impediments faced, and plans for the future. To identify shared themes and make comparisons data was analysed by ethnic group. Ethnic differences did exist in terms of desistance, particularly at the meso level in terms of family and community. For the Indians desistance was influenced by their families' aspirational values and access to resources, while Bangladeshis families showed a laudable willingness to offer acceptance and forgiveness. Forboth these groups desistance was characterised as a much more collective experience involving their families actively intervening in their lives and a reorientation towards the family. In contrast Black and dual heritage offenders' desistance was a much more individualistic endeavour c::haracterised by greater isolation and disengagement from their community. The implications of these findings for a need for a wider research agenda that appreciates the importance of how desisters' structural location affects their desistance is discussed in the concluding chapter
32
Gomm, Rebecca Maria. "Women making meaning of their desistance from offending : an interpretative phenomenological analysis." Thesis, Durham University, 2016. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/11567/.
Full textAbstract:
It is recognised that women who have offended comprise a vulnerable group having commonly experienced trauma and abuse. However, the dominant risk paradigm and assessment tools used within the Criminal Justice System have excluded women offenders in the research base. Similarly, current approaches to desistance, which is concerned with the cessation of offending, have neglected the perspective of women offenders. This study explores an alternative approach, based upon women offenders perspectives, to inform upon intervention and support which encourages desistance from offending. Resilience theory provides a broad framework for the study, in which in depth interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 15 ethnically diverse women drawn from probation services and third sector agencies. Documentary records which included offence history and Probation assessment records were utilised to provide a rich context to the research. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to explore the women’s experiences and understandings of their offending behaviour, as well as how they found meaning in the support and interventions received from these services. Findings revealed complex histories of childhood neglect and abuse, interpersonal violence in adult relationships, including rape and mental health needs. Of particular importance was the value placed by the women on interventions and approaches that focussed on enabling them to build resilience, through relational resources and self-efficacy beliefs. Barriers to building resilience were related to adaptive behaviours, including the understanding that trust in relationships was paradoxical. Another barrier was posed through lack of self-efficacy beliefs. The study concludes that desistance from offending is underpinned by the process of building resilience for recovery in women offenders. It is recommended that building resilience to support the recovery journey is translated into policy and practice and that the way in which women offenders are assessed based on risk to the public is reconceptualised to inform this.
33
Davey, Linda. "Performing Desistance: A model of change for applied theatre with incarcerated women." Thesis, Griffith University, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/370986.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis occupies a multidisciplinary space where questions of utility intersect those of aesthetics, to engage with the concerns of theatre, criminology and psychology. As such, it straddles difficult territory: the no-man’s-land of applied theatre in prison contexts, a territory where the epistemological walls around disciplinary boundaries are often fortified, and where research worlds often collide. This thesis moves boldly into this territory, moving within and between the arts and the social sciences in a quest to understand and theorise change within prison theatre practice.
Missing from many discussions of prison theatre is the connection between the often-espoused transformative claims, and what we know ultimately assists people to move away from crime. This is not an easy link to make and for the most part has not been made, due largely to the lack of an adequate theory of change for the work. This thesis develops a model of change for women’s prison theatre. This model is anchored in a three-tiered conceptualisation of desistance from crime and theorises the ways in which our unique embodied and aesthetic medium contributes to the change process. In so doing it provides a relevant and gender-responsive conceptualisation for applied theatre practice within settings with incarcerated women.
Firstly, the research draws upon current theories of desistance to inform the development of an applied theatre practice in two projects with incarcerated women in Queensland, Australia. Secondly, it analyses the experience of the participants, staff and audiences against this theoretical background to understand those elements within the practice that provoke the experience of women’s change as defined by theories of primary, secondary and tertiary desistance; and thirdly, it infuses this analysis with an exploration of the importance of the aesthetic dimension of the theatrical experience for enhancing this change process.
The emerging model identifies a theatre of doing, being and belonging in which the embodied and affective qualities of the practice catalyse the development of those elements known to assist women in their move away from crime. In so doing this thesis highlights the importance of an informed praxis within the field of participatory prison theatre with incarcerated women. It is buttressed, not only by claims of renewal or transformation, but also by the knowledge of the elements of our practice that assist offenders. The research is not evaluative, but conceptual: it provides a preliminary theoretical framework that can inform relevant and appropriate future evaluation. This thesis proposes that, by conceptualising how prison theatre can catalyse change, we are more able to claim the utility of our unique work with women offenders. We can view prison theatre as an ethical set of practices, embedded within the larger context of women’s pathways to crime and incarceration, thereby seeking to ameliorate suffering and restore dignity in ways that are clear and well defined.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School Educ & Professional St
Arts, Education and Law
Full Text
34
Suzuki, Masahiro. "People or Process? Desistance Journeys and Measures in Youth Restorative Justice Conferences." Thesis, Griffith University, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/397589.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis addresses two questions regarding desistance through restorative justice (RJ) conferencing. First, it examines whether RJ conferencing supports change towards desistance. Although there has been a significant amount of research on what RJ conferencing can offer to victims and offenders, little is known about how and why RJ conferencing may support change towards desistance. This thesis addresses this gap by developing an explanatory model to understand change towards desistance through RJ conferencing. Second, this thesis asks how change towards desistance should be measured and evaluated in research on RJ conferencing. Scholars have generally agreed that desistance should be recognised as a process that involves lapses and relapses of offending until the complete cessation of offending. Despite this consensus, most research has adopted a prevalence measure of post-conference offending (i.e. involvement in reoffending). Such a measure may not be appropriate for capturing the complex processes of change towards desistance through RJ conferencing; however, there is no agreement as to what measure is best suited to examine such change. In my thesis, I employ six different measures of offending patterns towards desistance: (i) the prevalence measure of post-conference offending, (ii) change in the frequency of offending, (iii) change in the number of offence types, (iv) change in the seriousness of offending, (v) the time frame to reoffend and (vi) an integrated measure of offending patterns towards desistance. I investigate these measures and how they vary to better understand what aspects of RJ conferencing may support change towards desistance.
Because my research seeks to show ‘how’ and ‘why’ RJ conferencing may support change towards desistance for young offenders, I employ a mixed-methods approach. Drawing on the South Australian Juvenile Justice (SAJJ) dataset, which includes more than 80 young offenders who have participated in RJ conferencing, my thesis contains two studies designed to answer the questions above. In Study A, I examine which aspects of RJ conferencing may support change towards desistance and whether these elements vary across the different measures of offending patterns towards desistance. In Study B, I explore why RJ conferencing may support change towards desistance. Using integrated measures of offending patterns towards desistance, I conduct a thematic analysis of young offenders’ responses to interview questions regarding their experiences with and attitudes towards RJ conferencing. By identifying common themes among offenders with similar desistance trajectories, and distinct themes among offenders with different desistance trajectories, I examine why desistance trajectories may differ between young offenders who have participated in RJ conferencing.
The findings of Study A offer two important insights. They first show that regardless of the use of different measures of offending patterns towards desistance, residential instability is associated with an increase in post-conference offending at both follow-up periods. They also demonstrate that regardless of the use of different measures of offending patterns towards desistance, young offenders who reached a genuine consensus with victims on an agreement plan show the strongest movement towards desistance at both follow-up periods.
In Study B, I establish the concept of the ‘offender journey towards desistance’. This concept encapsulates how offenders experience RJ conferencing, and how their experiences are linked to desistance trajectories after RJ conferencing. Specifically, I identify three types of offender journeys: (1) the ‘optimal journey’, whereby young offenders completely desist from crime after RJ conferencing; (2) the ‘changing journey’, whereby young offenders experience lapses and relapses of offending after RJ conferencing; and (3) the ‘difficult journey’, whereby young offenders escalate their offending behaviour after RJ conferencing.
This thesis makes theoretical, practical and policy contributions to the understanding of the relationship between RJ conferencing and change towards desistance. My dissertation reveals the need to develop different theoretical accounts for different desistance trajectories through RJ conferencing, as no single theory or model adequately explains the complexity of the desistance process following RJ conferencing. In terms of RJ practice, my thesis highlights the importance of helping young offenders rebuild their life after RJ conferencing, because they struggle to ‘go straight’ after RJ conferencing. As for the policy implication, my findings suggest that to understand the complexity of desistance trajectories, an individual-based evaluation on what offending trajectories individual offenders experience (i.e. a qualitative approach) may be more appropriate than a group-based evaluation of whether offenders desist or not (i.e. a quantitative approach).Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Crim & Crim Justice
Arts, Education and Law
Full Text
35
Jump, Deborah Louise. "Fighting for change : narrative accounts on the appeal and desistance potential of boxing." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2015. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/fighting-for-change-narrative-accounts-on-the-appeal-and-desistance-potential-of-boxing(8a77d4e2-e58d-40ca-9739-f61b9d73825c).html.
Full textAbstract:
This doctoral research addresses the relationship between the sport of boxing and men’s desistance from violent crime. It examines how men make sense of violence as a result of participating in the sport, and how they subsequently rehearse and practice violence in their everyday lives both in and outside of the gym walls. Thirteen men were interviewed using Biographical Narrative Interviewing techniques as part of a six month ethnography in an inner-city boxing gym in the north of England. Furthermore, I spoke with three policy makers in the field of sport and desistance from crime, to ascertain whether or not they determined sport to be beneficial in promoting pro-social behaviour among adolescents. Throughout this thesis I pay particular attention to the participant’s understanding of violence and also how the logic of the gym reinforces attitudes favourable to violence and the maintenance of respect. Thus, this research discusses and elaborates on previous assumptions in sporting and desistance literature, and argues that while relevant, diversionary activities and sport-based rehabilitative programmes are only one element in the theory of change. In conclusion, arguments are put forward that state that boxing actually traps men in an attendant culture of respect that requires them to respond in aggressive ways to maintain an image of both masculinity and respect. This attendant culture - that is transposable between gym and street – can override the pro- social desisting elements that the gym can offer, and reinforces the logic and discourses that evokes and traps men in habits of responding to violence, therefore in terms of future policy and practice new directions need to be sought.
36
Hills, Rhian. "An investigation into the process of recovery when substance misusers are attempting desistance." Thesis, University of South Wales, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.558382.
Full textAbstract:
The term recovery has been recently re-launched within UK drug policy, with focus on individuals' engaging in treatment and achieving change. What constitutes recovery and the process of recovery is misunderstood, due to the term previously being attributed to an individual reaching total abstinence. Within the UK previous research has largely focused on the benefits of pharmacological interventions, rather than on recovery as a concept. To date there have only been two major studies regarding recovery as a process (Mclntosh and McKeganey 2000a; Best et al 2008). However, what these studies did not do was assess the process of recovery in real time. The aim of the thesis was to provide a comprehensive investigation of recovery, to add knowledge to this area regarding the overall process of the concept. The research includes a prospective study (n=45) to assess the lived experience of recovery from those entering treatment, combined with a retrospective study of oral histories (n=12) to evaluate respondents' drug using career using semi-structured interviews. The main finding of the research was in relation to the importance significant life events have on the individual's decision to stop or resume drug use. The results confirm that recovery should not be viewed as an end state, but as a process of change over time, one which may be influenced by factors extraneous to drug use such as relationships, health and employment. These events are a combination of positive and negative experiences which can initiate or impede change. The results suggest that early identification of these factors could enhance change by removing existing potential barriers. Within the study, the terms recovery and desistance were used, with recovery pertaining to change over time and desistance referring to periods of non-drug use. Reviewing the literature coupled with findings from the study suggest that utilising these terms would provide a more clear cut definition of change and allow policy makers, researchers, academics and service users alike to have a sound understanding of what recovery is, whilst acknowledging the process of change over time.
37
Kazemian, Lila. "A comparative analysis of the duration of criminal careers and desistance from crime." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.615046.
Full text
38
Shoenberger, Nicole Ann. "The Effect of Marriage and Employment on Criminal Desistance: The Influence of Race." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1339560808.
Full text
39
Cookson, Janelle A. "Impact of Peers and Romantic Partners on Adolescent Desistance: A Focus on Gender." Bowling Green, Ohio : Bowling Green State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=bgsu1257199806.
Full text
40
Dunkley, Lisa. "DESISTANCE FROM CRIME OF SERIOUS JUVENILE OFFENDERS: EXAMINING THE SOCIAL AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES." UKnowledge, 2018. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/edsrc_etds/61.
Full textAbstract:
There is an overrepresentation of youths with disabilities in the juvenile justice system. As a result, each year thousands of juvenile offenders despite of the seriousness of the crimes committed, are released from incarceration with the hopes of living a successful life in society. Despite progressive research on identifying factors associated with desistance, it is still unclear what factors contribute to desistance for serious juvenile offenders and especially those with disabilities. The current study investigated the individual differences (e.g., moral disengagement, motivation to succeed and impulse control) and social factors (e.g., employment, education and maternal warmth) that are important in the process of desistance for serious juvenile offenders. The sample of 14 to 17-year-old male and female offenders (N =1354) was composed primarily of ethnically marginalized youths who have committed serious offenses. Results of the study indicated that both social and individual factors are significant predictors of desistance from crime. However, varied significance was found as it relates to Aggressive, Income Offending and desistance. Results obtained are applicable to scholarship across multiple disciplines, as well as inform policy, practice and future research on desistance from crime. Limitations of the study were also stated.
41
Janelöv, Agnes, and Ann Damberg. "Viktiga faktorer för att lämna kriminalitet." Thesis, Mälardalens högskola, Akademin för hälsa, vård och välfärd, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-30854.
Full text
42
Irving, James Graeme. "How does AA's 12 Steps and membership of the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous work for addressing drinking problems?" Thesis, University of Manchester, 2015. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/how-does-aas-12-steps-and-membership-of-the-fellowship-of-alcoholics-anonymous-work-for-addressing-drinking-problems(0daaa05c-5030-4102-b8f5-ac1eb48c318a).html.
Full textAbstract:
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is the world’s largest and most recognisable recovery ‘program’, and central to its philosophy is the 12 Step Program. AA is a global organisation of 2.2 million members worldwide (AAWS, 2001), with a reported 3,600 weekly meetings in the United Kingdom (AAWS, 2011). AA has made many claims in their literature about the program’s effectiveness (AAWS, 2001: 84). Alcoholism is associated with a number of very serious health and social problems, including involvement in crime (Finney 2004; Fitzpatrick, 2010; Alcohol Reduction Strategy 2003). As fiscal pressure mounts, groups such as AA will be of interest to policy makers. Through an analysis of interviews with twenty long-term abstinent members of Alcoholics Anonymous, the thesis seeks to explain the effects of participation in AA’s therapeutic practices. Evidence from the literature on AA, revealed three concepts key to understanding participation in AA: Motivation to Engage (MtE), Structured Social Engagement (SSE), and Personal Agency (PA). A hypothetical model of AA-mediated behavioural change, constituted by these elements, was constructed and the findings supported this putative model. Further analysis revealed the coping strategies members of AA employed that ensured engagement with AA during stressful life events that threatened abstinence. The model was adapted to incorporate the temporal effects of long-term engagement with AA. Elements of Maruna’s (2001: 73) Condemnation Script resonated in the narratives of AA members. Contra Maruna’s analysis, AA members accepted ‘condemnation script’, but these were not negative, limiting beliefs. AA’s therapeutic practices structure, a coherent sense of self, one that supports cessation from negative patterns of drinking. The data exposed the sustained usage of AA’s discourse in the narrative accounts given. This finding extends Borkman’s (1976) Experiential Knowledge thesis, a language of ‘truth’ based on personal experience. The ‘linguistic echoes’ embedded in each narrative, suggests that a person uses AA’s discourse to ‘scaffold’ their recovery. This thesis provides an explanation of AA’s therapeutic practices of how adherence to AA’s principles, cognitively restructures the individual towards mastering self-control. AA’s philosophy and the following empirical evidence asserts abstinence as pre-requisite for recovery from alcohol dependence.
43
Villagra, Carolina. "Socio-historical contexts, identity and change : a study of desistance from crime in Chile." Thesis, University of Leicester, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/37817.
Full textAbstract:
Scholarly activity in the area of desistance from crime has developed considerably over the last years; nonetheless, most of this work has been carried out with samples from Western countries. This thesis intends to make a contribution to one of desistance’s main underexplored areas, by exploring desistance processes among a group of Chilean formerly persistent male offenders, assessing the extent to which international evidence could be applied to this non-Western sample. Building upon the idea that desistance is better understood as a journey between offending to conformity, this thesis presents three positions in that continuum: the Current Offenders, Desisters in transition, and Desisters. It is found that existing knowledge is relevant to explain how Chilean former offenders transit out of crime, but it also reveals there are areas that are unique to this sample and might be related to differences in structural changes and socio-historical context. This thesis addresses that complexity by introducing three Desistance Pathways, which are particular dynamic configurations of structural and subjective factors that give rise to a certain sense of identity. Overall, this study provides a unique insight into desistance from crime in Chile, based on the analysis of the interplay between individual-level factors, social factors, structural changes and historical context.
44
Hulley, Joanne L. ""My history is not my destiny" : exploring desistance in adult male child sex offenders." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2016. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/15914/.
Full textAbstract:
Child sexual abuse has become the subject of heightened public interest in recent years, with individuals committing such offences typically regarded as irredeemable. Public vilification of this offender type does little to assist their community integration and has the potential to result in exclusion and social isolation, known risk factors for sexual reoffending. Whilst research on desistance from non-sexual offending has grown exponentially over previous decades, a focus on desistance from sexual offending has been largely neglected until recent years, which have witnessed the publication of a small number of qualitative studies. This thesis empirically explores the experiences of 15 men convicted of sexual offences involving children, and self-reporting desistance from further sexual offending. The men had served prison sentences and had since been released into the community for various periods. Obtaining access to a suitable sample proved to be a difficult and protracted process which resulted in the placement of an advertisement seeking volunteers. Narrative interviews generated a large amount of data which was subjected to thematic analysis. This revealed the three themes of formal social control, informal social control, and internal (re)sources of control. The use of stigma management techniques was significant, employed by the majority of respondents to enable a positive sense of self and allow for identity reconstruction. The findings also suggest two types of desistance from sexual offending within this sample - formal and substantive. The latter, a protracted process, involved identity change along a continuum, resulting from a continued interaction with the social and structural supports attained by respondents. In contrast, formal desistance involved no identifiable process. These findings are argued to make a significant contribution to the largely neglected empirical and theoretical work exploring desistance from sexual offending, and hold implications for treatment and management of convicted sexual offenders with child victims.
45
Nightingale, Naomi. "African American Men Who Give Voice to the Personal Transition from Criminality to Desistance." Antioch University / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1393458816.
Full text
46
Turner, Emily Clare. "A timely convergence : understanding and supporting the desistance-potential of fatherhood among young offenders." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2015. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/a-timely-convergence-understanding-and-supporting-the-desistancepotential-of-fatherhood-among-young-offenders(b959cad8-14a5-4731-be30-ae20435fe0e5).html.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis analyses findings from a predominantly qualitative study of young (aged 18 to 24) imprisoned fathers interviewed in prison shortly before release, some of whom were also followed into the community. The research focused on the experiences of these men in prison, and how being a young father in prison affected their attitudes to offending, fatherhood and the future. Furthermore, this work investigated how these men then reintegrated back into the community and whether they managed to fulfil their hopes for change, focussing on what factors helped or hindered this process. This research applies desistance theory and identity theory to the lived experience of young imprisoned fathers; a group that has been largely ignored in previous research. The work is informed by both social-psychological (Maruna, 2001; Farrall, 2002; Meek, 2007a) and sociological perspectives (Laub and Sampson, 2003). This thesis adds to knowledge about the process of change for young offending fathers, highlighting it to be a gradual and active process that draws on both internal and external influences. Change is a complex activity, especially for men with transient relationships and lifestyles, which relies on the fragile coincidence of many inter-connected factors. Due to the instability of many of these factors, it is a process characterised by successes and failures. This thesis argues that criminal justice policies need to support fatherhood to take full advantage of fatherhood’s desistance-potential. The findings provide evidence to support Maruna et al’s (2004a) description of a three track process of change, requiring self-determination, formal support and informal support. They also suggest the need for the additional important factors of identity transformation (Maruna, 2001; Paternoster and Bushway, 2009) in positive social and personal contexts (Farrall, 2002; Walker, 2010). Fatherhood adds an additional layer to these factors. This thesis also contributes to knowledge of how agency and structural factors interact.
47
Johnson, Helen. "The emotional trajectories of women's desistance : a repertory grid study on women exiting prostitution." Thesis, University of Kent, 2015. https://kar.kent.ac.uk/53612/.
Full textAbstract:
This research identifies and explores the emotions of women who are exiting (leaving) prostitution. In both the prostitution and desistance literature, emotional factors clearly emerge as part of the process of change for exiters and desisters; however, there has been very little direct focus on their importance and impact on this process. The research makes a unique contribution to the desistance literature by mapping the process of change for women with particularly complex and challenging circumstances and focusing on the emotional aspects of this change. Overall, the research confirms that understanding the emotional aspects of exit offers new insights and gives rise to a new approach to service provision. The findings reveal that emotions are central to desistance and that role transition is a prerequisite for desistance. The data has shown that exit is a process of self-determination, becoming one’s authentic self, and that this process is bound up with emotional drivers and barriers. The process of exit necessarily involves fostering positive emotional experiences through both external and internal changes. The data suggests that an understanding of dominant emotional constructs at any given time will give a gateway into how best to respond to the needs and motivations of the exiter through service provision and offers an emotionally intelligent model to meet these needs. Service provision plays a key role in bridging the change in lifestyle of exiters through generating emotional energy, increasing access to alternatives, fostering hope, and enabling women to reimagine their lives.
48
Mazzola, Leah B. "A Phenomenological Inquiry into Identity Change on the Path to Long-Term Criminal Desistance." ScholarWorks, 2016. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/3046.
Full textAbstract:
Growing federal attention to addressing collateral damages of the era of mass conviction and mass incarceration has led to millions in funding allocated to support successful reentry for offenders in contact with the justice system. In line with this initiative, federal agencies have recently turned to criminal desistance research to build on earlier recidivism studies and to inform successful reentry programs. In an effort to contribute to opportunities for future research within the desistance paradigm, this study was designed to explore the identity change process of the offender from deviant to prosocial, a continuously emerging concept within the desistance literature that has received little specific attention to date. The identity theory of desistance was used as the theoretical framework for this study in an effort to advance existing theory while exploring the phenomena of interest. The key research questions guiding inquiry related to understanding the lived experience of identity change as a component of the criminal desistance process, identifying determinants that influence this identity change, and identifying behaviors that support the changing identity. Data were secured using a combination of semi-structured interviews with 6 ex-offenders reportedly 10 or more years beyond desistance, observation around interviewing, and document reviews. Data were analyzed using a qualitative descriptive phenomenology approach. Results showed the essence of the experience of identity change through the criminal desistance process involves refining the internal and external world to fit the non-offending working identity. Results of this study advance existing knowledge and theory toward practical, transformative support for offenders on the road to positive reform.
49
Nyström, Robert, and Gustav Grut. "The Patients' Perspective on Opioid Substitution Treatment : A study of desistance from illicit drug use." Thesis, Mittuniversitetet, Avdelningen för samhällsvetenskap, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-31977.
Full textAbstract:
Using thematic analysis, this qualitative study investigates desistance from illicit drug use from the perspective of patients within opioid substitution treatment (OST). Wikström's theoretical framework was used to explain this process. From semi-structured reflective interviews with 12 patients admitted to an OST clinic in Sundsvall, three main themes were identified as relevant to the research aim. These main themes were labelled as follows: Motives for desistance, Perspectives on OST and Recipe for successful desistance. The findings were similar to those of previous research. The participants expressed criticism on specific regulations within OST, but were positive to the treatment in general. They felt a lack of emotional support from OST, but still reported an improvement in mental well being. While varied views on diversion of OST medication were expressed, a majority believe dillicitly used opioids to originate from sources other than OST. In conclusion, the participants viewed OST as an essential method for desistance from illicit drug use. Having a sincere will to desist and perceiving the past illicit opioid use as problematic were also deemed necessary for the treatment to be successful.2017-06-01
50
Evans, Emily Victoria. "A realistic evaluation of integrated offender management in one English county : a partnership for desistance?" Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2016. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33014/.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis presents the findings of an in-depth realistic evaluation of the Integrated Offender Management (IOM) approach in one English county. IOM is a multi-agency approach, promoted by government, to managing prolific offenders, with the aim of moving them towards desistance from crime. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative methods the findings demonstrate that IOM can be effective in supporting desistance, and is associated with reductions in the level and severity of reoffending and improvements in the circumstances and risk level of offenders. Using the realistic evaluation approach, three generative mechanisms were identified to explain these findings: the intense and structured approach to supervision; close multi-agency working; and caring and trusting relationships between practitioners and offenders. The findings also underscore the importance of offender readiness for change. This research confirms previous findings regarding the influence of interventions such as IOM on desistance and also identifies ways in which the operation and effect of IOM can be undermined. The confounding issues identified concern both the internal operation of IOM and the ways in which it fits into the wider criminal justice system, both locally and nationally. This research makes three contributions. Firstly, it adds to the literature and theory of IOM and assisted desistance within a multi-agency setting, through the development of a realist conception of the approach. Secondly it contributes to the literature on the use of realistic evaluation, an approach not employed in previous IOM evaluations. This research develops a method of presenting findings from realistic evaluation which reflect both generative mechanisms and ways they are confounded. Finally, it contributes to the policy and practice of IOM, and similar approaches, by outlining both its possibilities and limitations regarding offender rehabilitation and desistance. These findings are therefore of use to practitioners and policy makers in this constantly evolving field.