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Abstract: In the past decade, desistance research has attracted immense research attention, which has necessitated the clarification of the overall picture of desistance research in terms of methodology, definition, and theory. Using the systematic quantitative literature review method, we seek to provide an overview of Englishwritten peer-reviewed journal articles on desistance from 2011 to 2020. Analysis of 196 studies reveals that despite an almost equal quantitative-qualitative divide in desistance research, there is skewness in terms of research location, sample size, and usage of operationalisation and theory. Based on these findings, we suggest the future direction of desistance research.
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Desistance from Crime Processes of Desistance Desistance Theory Related Papers Abstract: Informed by a comprehensive review of theories and research into desistance (Weaver, 2015), this article advances a critical and contemporary overview of the main theories of desistance, drawing on illustrative empirical research. It begins by addressing definitional issues, prior to showing how various theories of desistance differently explain the phenomena of giving up crime. The article concludes by engaging with its limitations and its relatively muted impact on policy and practice. It is argued that desistance research, and its interpretation in both policy and practice, remains very individualistic in focus, and often disconnected from specific analyses of the cultural and structural contexts in which both offending and desistance take place. In considering how this review might inform future research, the article suggests that the desistance paradigm might be enhanced by attending to contemporary critiques of its limitations. In particular, this would suggest the application of intersectional methods and analyses, analyses of divergences in desistance pathways by crime type, enhanced critical and contextualizing analyses of cultural and structural influences on desistance, and, beyond individual desistance, a focus on the challenges of social integration for people with convictions, to better inform and shape penal policy and practice.
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Abstract: With the proliferation of desistance scholarship in the last two decades, some might argue that a saturation point has been reached. We beg to differ. More diverse research is needed to generate more depth and detailed understandings of desistance. In this chapter, four areas are critically analysed as areas for further development: (1) decolonising and culturally diversifying desistance research; (2) comparative desistance research; (3) diversity and social differences in desistance research (e.g., race and ethnicity, migration, religion, gender, sexuality, class and power); and (4) developing solidarities and social movements in support of desistance. This chapter intentionally features diverse international studies and authors, providing an alternative reading list of desistance scholarship to be celebrated alongside the landmark studies of (already) highly cited authors.
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Abstract: Abstract: This article presents the initial theoretical underpinnings for a fresh prospective study of desistance, focused on 20-year-old recidivists. It is argued that significant crime-free gaps appropriately form part of the subject matter of desistance. An interactive theoretical framework is presented, involving ‘programmed potential’, ‘social context’ (structures, culture, situations) and ‘agency’. It is argued that agency, while rightly attracting increasing interest within criminology, needs to be used with greater precision. Aspects of the social context of the research subjects' lives are summarised, with special reference to their age-transitional status and the relevance of ‘community’ in their lives. Since most criminal careers, even of recidivists, are short, the implications of subjects' movement from conformity to criminality and back to conformity require greater thought among criminologists and criminal justice professionals. However, these broad movements contain significant oscillations, and ‘crime’ is not a unidimensional concept in the lives of the research subjects. Capturing and explaining the complexity of these matters longitudinally is a significant challenge for the research.
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