DESISTANCE

Desistance

Table of Contents

1. Introduction3

1.1. Research question3

2. Theoretical framework3

Interactionist4

Structural4

Individual5

3. Hypotheses5

4. Methodology5

Sampling5

Data Collection and Analysis6

5. Results6

6. Discussion and Conclusion8

References12

Desistance

1. Introduction

Desistance is a course by which persons get to stop and maintain termination of criminal activities, without or with involvement by legal groups. Desistance describes the avoidance of offending by those who have offended in the past. The study of desistance essentially asks why people stop offending. (Gadd, 2004)

There is no single accepted definition of desistance. Most empirical measures emphasize the state of non-offending, but defining desistance as the absence of something (offending) leaves unclear whether the term applies only to the final termination of a criminal career or to any significant crime-free gap. To focus on the end point of non-offending may neglect the process by which this state is reached. Moreover, there is an important difference between someone merely not offending for a period and a person coming, through a process of change, to identify him or herself as a non-offender.

1.1. Research question

This paper provides a research on the experiences of 04 persons who have continued desistance for over five years. The plan of the study is to recognize that what are the fundamental reasons which helped them consider desistance from crime.

2. Theoretical framework

Whilst sharing some generalities, desistance theories can be largely classified as Interactionist, structural and individual.

Interactionist

Interactionist theories combine individual and structural explanations. These investigations of the dynamics of desistance often draw on offenders' accounts of their own experiences of desistance processes and stress the importance of individual transformations in identity and self, reproduced in transforming stimuli, more deliberation of the future and bigger fear for others. (Maruna, 2004)

Desistance theorists are increasingly focusing on changes of personal cognition, self-identity and self-concept which might precede or coincide with changes in social bonds. 'Turning point' events may have a different impact depending on the person's level of motivation, readiness to reform or interpretation of, or assignation of, the meanings of such events. The development of a 'coherent pro-social identity' and involvement in 'generative activities' contributing to the well-being of others are seen as critical. Agency, self-determination and societal reaction, in supporting and reinforcing the development of fledgling prosocial identities, influence the process of desistance.

Structural

The structural theories comprise “social bond theories” that assume a union between circumstances and desistance external to the person, but counting the person's response to and contact with those situations.

Individual

The Individual theories contain the extensive record and are derived from the conventional connections between certain criminal behaviours and age, placing descriptions of desistance within maturation and age. Though, some researchers say that recognizing desistance as a procedure than a condition of stop, particularly in reference to developmental accounts, renders the idea of age as a causal explanation of desistance implausible. Age indexes a range of several variables, with normative and social transitions (and the associated social meanings ascribed to them), biological changes, life experiences, the impact of social or institutional processes, and internal factors such as motivation or attitudinal ...