Desistance and social marginalization

Abstract

This paper examines the issue of desistance by considering the relationship between societal constraints and individual choices in the process of moving away from crime. The question of the distribution of those opportunities and resources to support desistance is raised within the context of a specific population—Aboriginal peoples of Canada. The impact of colonization resulting in economic and social marginalization, high rates of incarceration, and the generational transmission of trauma related to the experience of residential schools are factors which are related both to individual choice and external societal constraints. Structure, culture and biography are factors which must be addressed in the case of members of a marginalized population who wish to follow a path of desistance. The opportunity to participate in a community-based program that provides social capital in the form of marketable skills, connections to the wider society and personal healing through the reacquisition cultural traditions is seen as one way to overcome structural constraints while at the same time supporting an individual decision to desist from crime.