Stephen Farrall and Adam Calverley (2006) Understanding desistance from crime – theoretical directions in resettlement and rehabilitations

The purpose of this book is to familiarize the reader with the main preoccupations of research on desistance from crime and the processes associated with it, and to introduce them to new strands of research and theorizing in this field. We do this via summaries of previous theoretical and empirical work, as well as presenting some new data and analyses
based on our research into one cohort of ex-offenders whom we have followed for the past seven years. Desistance from crime, that is to say the process of ending a period of involvement in offending behaviour, is something of an enigma in modern criminology. It is the implicit focus of much criminological and criminal justice work and yet is an area that has
been relatively neglected in terms of research. However, the last 10 or 20 years have greatly extended what we know about the reasons why people cease offending.
Early forays into the field have led on to more rigorous and sustained efforts at charting the processes and factors associated with desistance (for recent reviews of this literature, see Laub and Sampson, 2001, 2003; Farrall, 2000, 2002; Maruna, 2001). During this time, we have also seen a renewed optimism about the outcomes of probation supervision and the development of the ‘What Works’ programme in North America and the UK. This book continues, and builds upon, this general work and upon one study in particular. In the late autumn of 1997, researchers started to follow the progress of a small cohort of men and women made subject to probation and combination orders (respectively now community rehabilitation and community punishment and rehabilitation orders). In all, 199 men and women were recruited into the study and, over the next two years, were reinterviewed at various points during the remainder of their periods of supervision. Fieldwork for the original study ended over the summer of 1999, and the results of the research eventually published (as Farrall, 2002). Four or five years after they were interviewed for the last time, we embarked upon a process of retracing and reinterviewing as many of these cohort members as we could find, up to a maximum of 50.
In fact, we did slightly better than this, and this book reports on the results of these interviews and provides an update on the lives of 51 of these men
and women.

L’ouvrage en PDF

Voir aussi:

John H. Laub and Robert J. Sampson Understanding Desistance from Crime  pdf

Un parcours de désistement criminel aux US avec l’implication d’anciens condamnés pour venir en aide…

User Voice was founded in 2009 by Mark Johnson, an ex-offender and former drug abuser ….

…who has gone onto becoming a best-selling author and respected social commentator

Mark’s story embodies the transformative change which User Voice strives to achieve. Mark’s direct contact with the criminal justice system, and later as an employer of ex-offenders and consultant for government and other charities, left him convinced of the urgent need to create a model of service user engagement that is fair for all involved. His principal aim was to foster dialogue between service providers and service users that is mutually beneficial, aiding rehabilitation and recovery and results in better and more cost-effective services.

User Voice was established in 2009 and received its charitable status in 2010.

Our role is to improve rehabilitation… through collaboration.

At User Voice we know that the criminal justice system needs to be improved. We are optimistic that change is possible and we know that we have the experience and insight to contribute to making it better.

Rehabilitation is possible, and people with convictions can turn their lives into an active force for good in society. Rehabilitation is the goal of all our work, a process which goes deeper than reducing offending, although that is an outcome.

At User Voice we build the structures that enable productive collaboration between service users and service providers. We are able to do this because our work is led and delivered by ex-offenders. This gives us the special ability to gain the trust of, access to, and insight from people within the criminal justice system.

User Voice is a charity led and delivered by ex-offenders. We believe that only offenders can stop re-offending. This short video gives an overview of what we have achieved since our inception in 2009.