This book makes a unique contribution to the internationalisation of criminological knowledge about gender and desistance through a qualitative cross-national exploration of the female route out of crime in Sweden and England. By situating the female desistance journey in diverse penal cultures, the study addresses two major gaps in the literature: the neglect of critical explorations of gender in desistance-related processes, and the lack of internationally comparative perspectives on the lived experience of desistance. Grounded in a feminist methodology – underpinned by a critical humanist perspective – this book draws on 24 life-story narrative interviews with female desisters across Sweden and England. The discussion covers departure points, qualitative experiences of criminal justice, as well as barriers and ‘ladders’ in the female route out. While some cross-national symmetry is detected, particularly in the areas of victimisation and issues around short custodial sentences, overall the findings indicate that diverse macro-processes and models, especially in terms of 'inclusive' versus 'exclusive' penal cultures, effectually 'trickle down' to the women in this study and produce different micro-experiences of desistance. Providing new qualitative evidence of the 'Nordic Exceptionalism thesis’, this book finds that, comparatively, the Swedish model offers a macro-context, supported and reflected in allied meso-practices, which is more conducive to the formation of female desistance narratives. This unique comparative study marks a step-change in desistance literature and will be essential reading for those engaged in the disciplines of penology, rehabilitation, gender and crime, and offender management.

This book represents a brief treatise on the theory and research behind the concept of desistance from crime. This ever-growing field has become increasingly relevant as questions of serious issues regarding sentencing, probation and the penal system continue to go unanswered. Rocque covers the history of research on desistance from crime and provides a discussion of research and theories on the topic before looking towards the future of the application of desistance to policy. The focus of the volume is to provide an overview of the practical and theoretical developments to better understand desistance. In addition, a multidisciplinary, integrative theoretical perspective is presented, ensuring that it will be of particular interest for students and scholars of criminology and the criminal justice system.

This book contributes to our knowledge of desistance in a developing country. Offering an intercultural dialogue with mainstream explanations, Transitions Out of Crime analyses the transition from crime to conformity among a group of Chilean juvenile offenders. Desistance from crime is not just the cessation of criminal activity itself, but a process of acquiring roles, identities, and virtues; of developing new social ties, and of inhabiting new spaces. This book offers new evidence that shows that the traditional binary between the ‘reformed desister’ and the ‘anti-social persister’ is inaccurate and that the road to desistance contains various oscillations between crime and conformity. Furthermore, this study shows the role that gender plays in shaping, limiting and structuring pathways away from crime. Written in a clear and direct style, this book will appeal to those engaged in criminology, sociology, penology, desistance, rehabilitation, gender studies and all those interested in the transition from crime to conformity outside the Anglo-American orthodoxy.

Women, Trauma, and Journeys towards Desistance: Navigating the Labyrinth provides an examination of women’s desistance from crime from a gender-responsive, trauma-informed perspective. The book is based on the reflections of fifty-six women over a three-year period as they transition from custody to the community. With the women, the author examines how experiences of trauma, victimisation, and intersectional oppression constrain access to traditional desistance supporting processes, including supportive relationships, identity construction, the exercise of agency, and engagement with treatment and interventions, reframing these processes from trauma-informed perspective. The book joins together the women’s insights and experiences with principles of gender-responsive, trauma-informed principles in a framework through which criminal justice practitioners can support women in their efforts to leave crime behind. The framework for practice is a fusion of concepts from desistance theory, principles of gender-responsivity, and trauma-informed practice designed to help women understand the root causes of the problems they face in the present whilst building on their resilience and strengths to achieve their goals for their futures. This book is ideal reading for scholars and students of criminology and criminal justice, particularly rehabilitation, gender and crime, and feminist criminology. It will also be of interest to academics and practitioners of forensic psychology and social work, as well as probation officers, social workers and prison officers.

This Handbook brings together the voices of a range of contributors interested in the many varied experiences of women in criminal justice systems, and who are seeking to challenge the status quo. Although there is increasing literature and research on gender, and certain aspects of the criminal justice system (often Western focused), there is a significant gap in the form of a Handbook that brings together these important gendered conversations. This essential book explores research and theory on how women are perceived, handled, and experience criminal justice within and across different jurisdictions, with particular consideration of gendered and disparate treatment of women as law-breakers. There is also consideration of women’s experiences through an intersectional lens, including race and class, as well as feminist scholarship and activism. The Handbook contains 47 unique chapters with nine overarching themes (Lessons from history and theory; Routes into the criminal justice system; Intersectionality; Sentencing and the courts and community punishments; Specific offences; Incarcerated women’s experiences; Mothers and families; Rehabilitation and reintegration; Practitioner relationships), and each theme includes contributions from different countries as well as the experiences of contributors from different stages in their own journey. International and interdisciplinary in scope, this Handbook is essential reading for scholars and students of criminology, sociology, social policy, social work, and law. It will also be of interest to practitioners, such as social workers, probation officers, prison officers, and policy makers.

How do young women negotiate their identity in the shadow of a criminal past? What expectations can these women have and what constraints do they face in embracing change and reform? In this new book, Gilly Sharpe returns to the group of women interviewed in her bestselling book Offending Girls, to ask these questions and more. Building on wide-ranging interviews with young adult women who have experienced a highly punitive climate in both youth justice and welfare policy, this book analyses their vivid personal accounts of stigmatisation and devaluation as former lawbreakers, welfare claimants and mothers, and examines their gendered transitions from youth criminalisation into adulthood. Women, Stigma, and Desistance from Crime exposes how stigma, which is rooted in structural inequality and thrives in societies with deep economic and social divisions, devalues working-class and marginalised women and diminishes their lives. It offers a unique analysis of how criminal stigma is shaped by class-based condescension, welfare inaction and school-based disciplinary punishment, and reveals how stigma is reproduced over time across education, welfare, and penal institutions. Meticulously researched and the first study to examine how the lives of young women previously enmeshed in the youth justice system unfold as they transition to adulthood, this book will be of interest to scholars and students of criminology and criminal justice, sociology, social work, social policy, gender and youth studies, and to practitioners and policy-makers in these fields.

The volume of studies into desistance has grown dramatically in recent years. Much of this research has focused on the internal dynamics of desistance such as decision-making, choice and restraint. Bringing together leading figures and drawing upon case studies from around the world, this book seeks to fill a vacuum in the contemporary literature on desistance by considering processes and practices at a societal level that influence how and why people desist from crime. Beginning with an outline of what is known about how social, cultural and economic structures shape desistance from crime, this book proceeds to explore studies of desistance in countries such as the UK, Brazil, France, Israel, Ireland, Sweden and Chile. These studies touch on variations by ethnicity, the nature of the criminal justice system, economic cycles, gender, religious belief systems and the use of time and space. Policy matters relating to desistance such as the rehabilitation and supervision of former offenders are also explored. This book will be invaluable reading to students and scholars of criminology, sociology and social studies engaged in studies of desistance, criminology, criminal justice, victimology, penology and probation.