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Leaving Behind the Deviant Other in Desistance-Persistence Explanations

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New Perspectives on Desistance

Abstract

Resettlement and correctional practices have been severely damaged by the ‘othering’ process in which offenders are not only seen as external enemies determined by their circumstances, but also as distinctive individuals who must be integrated and transformed into ‘us’. As Young (2011, 64) pointed out, ‘Ontological insecurity gives rise to a desire for clear-cut delineations, and for othering: it generates a binary of those in society and those without it, which is seen to correspond to the normal, on the one side, and the deviant and criminal on the other’. According to this view, individuals are divided between offenders and non-offenders and desistance is understood as a radical transformation in which offenders not only have to stop committing crimes completely, but also have to overcome all their social deficits by changing their lifestyle, identities, values, and aspirations.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The ‘Trajectories Study’ is a longitudinal study based at the Sociology Institute of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. The aim of this research project is to explore the criminal trajectories of a sample of young offenders. It started in 2012 and three waves of questionnaires have been completed since then. For more information about the study, see http://trayectoriasdelictuales.uc.cl/.

  2. 2.

    The youth from the sample were not first-time offenders, they had on average two previous convictions, a quarter had served prison sentences and they referred an average crime frequency of three crimes per day.

  3. 3.

    See Farrall et al. (2014) for a discussion of the landmark studies on desistance.

  4. 4.

    Minor delinquency consists of shoplifting, vandalism and fraud; moderate delinquency includes theft, gang fighting, carrying weapons and joyriding; and serious delinquency consists of car theft, strong-arming, selling drugs, breaking and entering, forced sex, homicide and assault.

  5. 5.

    A list of 21 criminal behaviours was used from a total of 23. Domestic violence (N = 6) and sexual assault (N = 1) were not considered because of their low prevalence at the second wave.

  6. 6.

    In order to classify the level of seriousness of offending for the individuals who did not commit any crime during the year previous to the first wave (Desisters first wave), I used the most serious offence that they declared in the life calendar prior to them stopping committing crimes.

  7. 7.

    Only the individuals who were criminally active in the first wave were considered for this analysis (N = 214).

  8. 8.

    Nevertheless, in the long term, desistance’s maintenance entails a more active process in which individuals’ exercise will and make choices to shape and reorientate their own life towards the future (Carlson 2016; Farrall 2002).

  9. 9.

    The individuals who did not commit any crime in the year prior to the first wave interview were considered as desisters in the first wave.

  10. 10.

    The individuals who committed at least one crime in the year prior to the first wave interview were considered as persisters in the first wave.

  11. 11.

    See Droppelmann (forthcoming) for an analysis of the factors promoting change.

  12. 12.

    For a description of the bargaining stage of grief, see Kübler-Ross (1969).

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  1. Pontificia Universidad Católica, Santiago, Chile

    Catalina Droppelmann

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  1. Catalina Droppelmann
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Correspondence to Catalina Droppelmann .

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  1. Law School, Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom

    Emily Luise Hart

  2. Institute for Criminal Law & Criminology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Esther F.J.C. van Ginneken

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Droppelmann, C. (2017). Leaving Behind the Deviant Other in Desistance-Persistence Explanations. In: Hart, E., van Ginneken, E. (eds) New Perspectives on Desistance. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95185-7_10

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