NCJ Number
207036
Journal
The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 43 Issue: 4 Dated: September 2004 Pages: 420-436
Date Published
September 2004
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This article argued that desistance research should provoke a reconsideration of the essential character of interventions with adults involved in offending behavior.
Abstract
The main argument of this article is that the findings of desistance research should provoke a reconsideration of the essential character of interventions with adults involved in offending behavior. The analysis explored several aspects of the probation policy and practice in the United Kingdom, but had a primary focus on Scotland. The research reviews the new penology trends from rehabilitation to correction that has occurred over the past decade. Along with the ideological reformation of rehabilitation as a correctional endeavor undertaken in the public interest come recent organizational changes of a very complex format. The shift towards the field of corrections is an integral part of the new labor’s modernization process for the criminal justice system. Rehabilitation and correctionalism in Scotland seem likely to inhibit the development of unfettered correctionalism. It seems as though Scotland may be better served to find a balance between correctionalism and rehabilitation to provide higher rates of desistance. In order to support desistance, research has found that the desisters and persisters shared the same bleak outlook in their accounts of their criminal careers. However, desisters discover that they have an agency that will help them rise above the structural forces that bear down on them. Being desistance focused implies a focus on the purpose and aspiration of the intervention rather than on the problems that come before it. If existing organizations or new organizations can continue to retain, develop, and refocus the aspects of Scottish policy and practice which seem to best support desistance, then the possibility for forward movement in a constructive manner away from correction may be possible. Notes, references