Dynamics of Desistance: Book launch and seminar
Dr Deirdre Healy, IRCHSS Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the UCD Institute of Criminology, has recently published a new book Dynamics of Desistance: Charting pathways through change. To mark the publication the Institute of Criminology in association with the Association for Criminal Justice Research and Development hosted a seminar exploring the issues raised.
The author:
Deirdre obtained her primary degree in Psychology and Philosophy from Trinity College Dublin and then completed her doctorate at the UCD Institute of Criminology. She was employed as a researcher on a number of funded projects, including a national study of attrition in rape cases at NUI Galway and a study of pathways out of crime among young adult offenders at the University of Sheffield. Her research interests include desistance, reintegration, community sanctions, and victimisation.
The book:
It is well-established that the majority of offenders cease to commit crime in early adulthood but the mechanisms behind the shift from a criminal to a conventional lifestyle are not fully understood. This book aims to contribute to this nascent area of inquiry by providing a phenomenological account of the psychosocial processes involved in desistance from crime.
Drawing on a variety of methods, including in-depth interviews with repeat offenders and their probation officers, police records and psychometric scores, this book charts the early stages of a journey taken by individuals who exist in the liminal space 'betwixt and between' crime and convention.
Their progress is followed over a four-year period.
The book uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis to explore the shifts that occur in desisters' minds and lives as they make the often turbulent transition to a crime-free life. It attempts to illuminate the 'black box' of change and describe the dynamic processes that occur at the psychosocial boundary. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are explored in relation to key issues in the desistance literature. A tentative model of desistance is proposed and potential applications of the findings to probation supervision are suggested.
The seminar:
The seminar took place on Wednesday 9th June and was chaired by Maura Butler of the Association for Criminal Justice Research and Development and the Law Society of Ireland. The respondents were Michael Donnellan, Director of the Probation Service , Dr. Gwen Robinson, Senior Lecturer, School of Law , University of Sheffield and Dr. Colin Webster, Reader in Criminology, School of Social Sciences, Leeds Metropolitan University.
Clockwise
Dr. Gwen Robinson, Mr Michael Donnellan, Professor Ian O’Donnell, Dr Colin Webster, Ms Maura Butler, Dr Deirdre Healy (seated)
