Desistance by Design: Offenders' Reflections on Criminal Justice Theory, Policy and Practice

Abstract

This article highlights the views and advice of offenders in Scotland about what helps and hinders young people generally in the process of desistance, why interventions may or may not encourage desistance and what criminal justice and other agencies can do to alleviate the problems which may result in offending. The findings suggest that probation-style supervisory relationships with workers are still the key means to promote desistance but given the fact that offenders perceive desistance to be ‘by design’ rather than ‘by default’, there still needs to be a greater emphasis placed by criminal justice and wider agencies on the structural constraints to a legal, conventional and integrated lifestyle.