Fostering Desistance

Abstract

In the past three decades, social scientists have made real progress in understanding “desistance,” or the process of transitioning away from criminal behavior. Yet criminal justice policies and practices have been slow to adopt the lessons of life course criminology. Connecting research on desistance theories, particularly identity-based theories, to reentry policies is crucial to understanding the context of criminal offending. Repeated interactions between individuals involved in crime and the police, courts or prison populations can actually increase the salience of criminal identities and strengthen relationships with others involved in crime. Alternatively, movement toward more positively valued adult roles can help foster and gradually stabilize non-criminal identities through the same role commitment process. As a short-term reform, “the problem facing those returning to civilian life from prison is fundamentally a problem of entry rather than reentry.” Furthermore, if the task of entry is one of integrating into “pro-social adult life”, people need programs that support desistance by fostering success in education, employment, family relationships, maintaining a residence, and participating as a citizen in the community. In the medium-term, we see a crucial need to eliminate most collateral consequences of criminal justice involvement because “It makes little sense for a system to encourage or support the adoption of an identity if the people who pass through it are marked as unredeemable.” Finally, there is a long-term need to eliminate structural barriers that prevent people from fully participating in civil society and minimize crime through equitable social policy.