Defining Desistance

Working Together? Gendered Barriers to Employment and Desistance From Harm Amongst Criminalised English Women

“…Trauma, violence, poverty and socio-economic marginalization are pervasive. This is true historically and contemporaneously (Carlen, 1990; Barr, 2019). In England and Wales, almost two thirds of women in prison are survivors of domestic abuse and more than half of women in prison have experienced childhood emotional, physical or sexual abuse (Women in Prison, 2021).…”

“…This work often highlights the importance of meaningful, generative employment (Carlsson, 2012; Horney et al, 1995; Laub & Sampson, 2003; Maruna, 2001; Sampson & Laub, 1993; Verbruggen et al, 2012). Yet Barr (2019) has argued for a shift in focus in the drive for desistance from crime to desistance from harm including from the gendered harms of interpersonal and state violence. This argument is solidified by feminist (Hart, 2017; Hart & van Ginneken, 2017; Österman, 2018) and abolitionist (Hale, 2020; Barr and Hart, 2022) perspectives which note that individual intentions to desist by criminalized women can be eclipsed by historical and ongoing disadvantage and trauma (Kashy & Morash, 2022).…”

“…Across both traditional and more critical examinations of desistance is an agreement that meaningful, unionized, well-paid employment can act as a desistance-promoting social bond, in terms of both crime and harm. Yet feminist researchers are keen to draw attention to the unpaid labor of women, which is particularly salient in criminalized women’s experiences (Barr, 2019). Criminalized women are doubly demonized Heidenshohn and Silvestri, 2012; Leverentz, 2014; Worrall, 1990) and desisting women often have to live up to gendered and racialized understandings of the ‘good woman’ (Rutter and Barr, 2021).…”

“…The role of stigma-power, particularly considering the work of Imogen Tyler (2020) is considered. The article offers a brief theoretical examination of the role of critical approaches to desistance (Hart, 2017; Hale, 2020; Barr, 2019) and the importance of perspectives which focus on diminished citizenship (Sered, 2021), arguing that these approaches can be complimentary. The article then considers the methodology that informs this critical argument, examining also the limitations of the work.…”

Longitudinal cross-national perspectives on female desistance: The role of social and emotional capitals in female narrations of maintaining change

“…To further understand these paradoxes around trust in women’s desistance, we must briefly give attention to what is known about the lived experiences of relationships for this group. In feminist desistance research, violence and especially intimate partner violence, abuse and the recovery from trauma, has been found to significantly influence the process of going ‘straight’ (Barr, 2019; Barr and Christian, 2019; Cobbina, 2010; Gålnander, 2019; Gomm, 2016; Harding, 2020). In view of this, maybe it is unsurprising to learn that research has found that for many women, moving away from certain friendship groups/communities and social worlds (Barr, 2019; Österman, 2018; Rodermond et al, 2016), as well as leaving violent intimate relationships (Gålnander, 2019; Gomm, 2016; Leverentz, 2006; Österman, 2018; Wolff and Draine, 2004), up their chances of desistance.…”