Justice capital: A model for reconciling structural and agentic determinants of desistance

Abstract

The emerging literature on desistance (and recovery from addictions) has focused on key life-course transitions that can be characterised as the need for jobs (meaningful activities), friends (transitioning to pro-social) and houses (a home free from threat). The term ‘recovery capital’ is used to characterise personal, social and community resources an individual can draw upon to support their recovery, partly bridging agentic (personal) and structural (community) factors. The development of the concept of ‘justice capital’ furthers this reconciliation, by focusing on resources an individual can access and the resources that an institution can provide. We build on this by outlining the concept of institutional justice capital (IJC) to examine the role of criminal justice institutions in supporting or suppressing justice capital, particularly for marginalised groups. We use a case study approach, drawing on recent studies in prisons in Australia and the United Kingdom to develop a model of justice capital at an institutional level and discuss how this can shape reform of prisons and can be matched to the needs of offenders. The paper concludes with a discussion of future directions in implementing an IJC model, to deliver a strengths-based approach to promoting desistance and creating a metric for assessing the rehabilitative activities of institutions.

The role of social mechanisms of change in women’s addiction recovery trajectories

“…As Covington (2002) explains, experiences of trauma expand beyond the suffering of direct violence to also include the witnessing of violence and the stigmatisation of these experiences, with women at a greater risk of experiencing harm from a partner or loved one. Experiences of trauma are known to co-occur with addiction (Covington, 2008;Devries et al, 2014;Meulewaeter et al, 2019), suggesting there are structural and internal factors affecting access to positive social networks (Best et al, 2021). It has also been acknowledged that women are more at risk of experiencing mental ill-health as a result of an intimate relationship breakup than men, and partner strain in young adults' relationships is associated with greater substance use for women, supporting the notion that intimate relationships can indeed present risks if characterised by inconsistency and strain (Simon & Barrett, 2010).…”

The gendered weight of desistance and understanding the ‘love of a good woman’: Desistance emotional work (DEW)

“…The women talked about a range of their male partners’ offending histories, including armed robbery, drug-related offences, domestic offences, and sexual offences. Throughout data collection, we scheduled debriefing sessions after each interview; this was to maximise reflexivity and minimise the potential of experiencing vicarious trauma (Dickson-Swift et al, 2008; Moran and Asquith, 2020). During our discussions, we were mindful of the emotional labour in the conduct of our research.…”

“…Access to not only positive relationships but to a range of supportive resources is important to desistance, and recent work has sought to reconcile the range of internal and external resources required for successful desistance (Best et al, 2021). Desistance research requires development to understand women's roles in providing capital, to ensure that support requirements are not disproportionately onerous for women.…”