Structuration, human development and desistance from crime

Farrall, Stephen

doi:10.1093/bjc/39.2.253

Cited by 212 publications

(135 citation statements)

References 19 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

126

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…These things coupled with a supervisor who educates them about the work they are doing and how to act appropriately in public, looks out for them, helps out with family and other personal issues and is their friend, has resulted in these young people predominately desisting from crime. These results provide support for an integrated theory of desistance that takes into account both individual decisions and structural components (Farrall and Bowling 1999), and creates as Giordano et al (2002) suggest, a hook for change for the young people in the Skill Mill.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 59%

“…This suggests that volunteering and completing the Skill Mill is a sign that young people want to change, or already have changed their behaviours. This strand of research appears to favour an integrated approach to desistance (Farrall and Bowling 1999) stressing the importance of both individual decisions (e.g. volunteering to participate in a work-based desistance programme) and social structural conditions (e.g.…”

Section: The Skill Millmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Do Flood Mitigation and Natural Habitat Protection Employment Reduce Youth Offending?

Long

Oswald

Stretesky

et al. 2018

Eur J Crim Policy Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The present study examines the association between employment and offending for a sample of young offenders who are paid to work in a pilot programme known as the Skill Mill. First, we analyse a sample of 39 youths over a period of 10 years (40 quarters) to determine whether Skill Mill employed youth are more likely to desist from offending than a control group of youth who are not employed in the Skill Mill. Those youths employed by the Skill Mill committed 1.12 fewer offences per quarter than the control group (p < 0.001). In addition, offending rates among the Skill Mill youths decreased by 0.99 offences per quarter after they began work (p < 0.001). Next, we review results from semi-structured interviews with current Skill Mill employees and their supervisor that helps to unpack why the Skill Mill has been successful in promoting desistance. We conclude that programmes like the Skill Mill can mark an important turning point, and more specifically, a hook for change in the lives of young offenders.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 59%

Section: The Skill Millmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Flood Mitigation and Natural Habitat Protection Employment Reduce Youth Offending?

Long

Oswald

Stretesky

et al. 2018

Eur J Crim Policy Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Most scholars now tend to stress the interplay between these three factors (Farrall and Bowling, 1999); it is not just getting older, getting married or getting a job, it is about what these kinds of developments mean and signify to ex/offenders themselves and whether they represent compelling enough reasons for and opportunities to change the pattern of one's life.…”

Section: Figure 1: Offender Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reexamining Evidence-Based Practice in Community Corrections: Beyond “A-Confined View” of What Works

McNeill

Farrall

Lightowler

et al. 2012

Justice Research and Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article aims to reexamine the development and scope of evidence-based practice (EBP) in community corrections by exploring three sets of issues. Firstly, we examine the relationships between the contested purposes of community supervision and their relationships to questions of evidence. Secondly, we explore the range of forms of evidence that might inform the pursuit of one purpose of supervision—the rehabilitation of offenders—making the case for a fuller engagement with “desistance” research in supporting this process. Thirdly, we examine who can and should be involved in conversations about EBP, arguing that both ex/offenders' and practitioners' voices need to be respected and heard in this debate.

show abstract

“…Complementing and extending the work on the role of social capital is a body of literature supporting the notion that both individual and social factors impact on the prison-tocommunity transition experience and that there is interaction between individual agency and the structural environment (Farrall, Bottoms, & Shapland, 2010;Farrall & Bowling, 1999;Farrall et al, 2011;O'Brien, 2001). Others debate the "chicken and egg" (LeBel, Burnett, Maruna, & Bushway, 2008) of the role of agency and structure, such as "which comes first" and which has the greatest impact on offending behaviour (Laub & Sampson, 1993).…”

Section: Understanding the Transition Experience Of The General Prisomentioning

confidence: 97%

“…They asserted that "securing employment, resolving conflict with family members, maintaining sobriety, joining a community organisation … are all indicators of successful attachment to the institutions of civil society", potentially leading to reduced offending (p. 107). Later work built on these ideas and the attention began to shift in prison-to-community transition research to social, economic and support domains (Baldry et al, 2006;Graffam et al, 2005), to health as the central focus (Binswanger et al, 2011;Kinner, 2006;Kinner, Burford et al, 2013;Levy, 2005), to the relevance of social capital (Mills & Codd, 2008;Taylor, 2013;Wolff & Draine, 2004), and to the interaction between the individual and the environment (Farrall & Bowling, 1999;Farrall, Sharpe, Hunter, & Calverley, 2011).…”

Section: Understanding the Transition Experience Of The General Prisomentioning

confidence: 99%

Hoping Against Hope: The Prison-to-Community Transition Experience of Men With Co-Occurring Severe Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorder

Denton¹

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This thesis explores the prison-to-community transition experience after short-term incarceration, from the perspective of men with co-occurring mental illness and substance use disorder in Queensland, Australia. A specific focus was to examine the impact of systems and structures on the individual experience of transition. Prior research has established that people with co-occurring mental illness and substance use are overrepresented in the Australian prisoner population. It is also known that transition from prison to community for the general custodial population is a time of vulnerability, with increased risk of substance use, homelessness, unemployment, reincarceration and post-release death. All of these risks are compounded for prisoners with co-occurring disorders who are also at risk of a range of poor criminal justice outcomes and losing contact with mental health services after release.Review of the literature indicates a tendency for research to focus on recidivism as an outcome and emphasise either individual risk behaviour or social and structural factors influencing prison-to-community transition. Interventions during transition for the current population have traditionally been based on the criminalisation hypothesis, with a focus on increased provision of mental health services in prison and an emphasis on continuity of care in the community. There is a growing recognition in the international literature that the issues are much broader than mental illness; however, there is a lack of clarity as to how to respond to the complex needs of this population. Research exploring the perspective of men with cooccurring severe mental illness and substance use disorder during their prison-to-community transition experience has rarely been undertaken.The conceptual framework developed for this study shifts the emphasis away from recidivism towards recovery and wellbeing through a lens of individual action, but only in the context of the potential for systems and structures to impact on the ability of individuals to exercise agency. A qualitative method was used comprising repeat in-depth interviews with 18 men: within 1 month prior to leaving prison, within 2 weeks post-release and at 3 months postrelease. Three themes characterised the transition experience of participants: "hoping against hope"; "adrift in freedom"; and "the slippery slope". Participants reported leaving the predictable and routine life in prison where they hoped for a better life after release, to an uncertain, unstable and isolated environment in the community, eventually sliding into drug use, chaos and despair. The risk environment framework (Rhodes, 2009) and structuration theory (Giddens, 1984) were employed to understand how participants were caught in a complex dynamic between their individual risk behaviour and broader structural risk iii environments. This thesis proposes that a web of interrelated factors contributed to participants in the study as "ambivalent agents" who were suspended between the two worlds of priso...

show abstract

Structuration, human development and desistance from crime

Cited by 212 publications

References 19 publications

Do Flood Mitigation and Natural Habitat Protection Employment Reduce Youth Offending?

Do Flood Mitigation and Natural Habitat Protection Employment Reduce Youth Offending?

Reexamining Evidence-Based Practice in Community Corrections: Beyond “A-Confined View” of What Works

Hoping Against Hope: The Prison-to-Community Transition Experience of Men With Co-Occurring Severe Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorder

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About