Desistance From Crime—to What? Exploring Future Aspirations and Their Implications for Processes of Desistance

Abstract

This article presents findings from a longitudinal interview study following the desistance processes of 10 women. While desistance theory primarily focuses on the processual movement away from crime, this article pays close attention to what desisters strive to desist into. The repeated in-depth interviews reveal a diverse range of future aspirations among desisters, and the analysis unravels gendered, class-, and age-graded aspects of such aspirations. As a result of these findings, the article problematizes parts of previous research both empirically and theoretically, and allows for a development of the understanding of desistance processes.