Rethinking social capital in the desistance process: The ‘Artful Dodger’ complex

Abstract

Social capital has become a core component of our understanding of desistance in recent years. Some of this work, however, seems to present social capital as inherently positive, suggesting that increasing stocks in social capital is fundamental to the desistance process. Knowledge surrounding exactly how social capital is utilized within the desistance process, with the exception of acquiring social capital as a social good, remains underexplored. Through an analysis of the desistance narratives of young adult men serving community orders under the supervision of the probation service in England and Wales, this article argues that, instead of being considered to be inherently good, social capital is perhaps better thought of as value neutral, consisting of both positive and negative aspects (some of which occur simultaneously). Desistance, then, is not simply about obtaining social capital (because many people with convictions possess stocks of social capital that supported their offending); rather it is about reorienting the type of capital available to them at any given time, from relationships that imbue ‘anti-social capital’ to those that imbue ‘pro-social capital’. This distinction has significant theoretical and policy interventions, arguing that it is pro-social capital that the literature makes reference to in terms of supporting desistance efforts. The article concludes by offering some tentative suggestions for future research, along with ways in which this distinction can further support how we operationalize desistance within criminal justice policy and practice.

Desistance: A Utopian Perspective

“…Desistance has tended to highlight positive themes such as hope, generativity, of ‘making good’, redemption scripts, creating new prosocial identities and discovering purpose (Maruna 2001; Nugent and Schinkel 2016). Similarly, drug recovery has highlighted the accrual of ‘positive’ capitals (personal, social and community), and has also tended towards the implicit assumption of positive linear accrual of these capitals to describe the recovery journey (Kay 2020). Best and Laudet (2010) see personal capital as encompassing resources and qualities such as resilience, communication skills, self‐esteem and self‐efficacy.…”

“…Desistance, similar to recovery, as it will be argued here, operates on a positive and negative continuum, the capitals expressed though the respondents’ hopes would be expressed positively on the continuum, and their pains of desistance would be expressed negatively on the continuum to incorporate what we will later term negative desistance capital akin to negative recovery capital (Cloud and Granfield 2008). Hopes and pains of desistance like positive and negative capital can occur simultaneously (Kay 2020). The desistance process is experienced in both positive and negative ways with different hopes and pains operating at the micro, meso and macro levels which inevitably interact and either facilitate or impede positive change towards a life beyond desistance.…”

Różnice płci w odstępowaniu od przestępczości

“…prace "pod stołem" (na czarno), które nie dają żadnego bezpieczeństwa ani nie zapewniają ochrony legalnego zatrudnienia. Nawet jeśli zaczepiają się o potencjalne punkty zwrotne, takie jak zatrudnienie, oferty pracy, które otrzymują, są tak niskiej jakości, że nie służą jako znacząca platforma odstąpienia od przestępczości (Sered, Norton-Hawk 2019;2020). Biorąc pod uwagę odmienność płci, należy stwierdzić, że stała praca w połączeniu z satysfakcją jej wykonywania jest silniejszym predyktorem odstąpienia od przestępczości u mężczyzn niż u kobiet.…”

“…Postrzegana własna skuteczność ułatwiała im wyznaczanie sobie celów, zaangażowanie oraz wytrwałość wobec przeciwności i komplikacji występujących w procesie odstąpienia od przestępczości. Własna skuteczność motywuje do działania na rzecz własnego dobra (Friestad, Skog Hansen 2010: 295;McIvor, Trotter, Sheehan 2009: 357;Kay 2020). Kelly Hannah--Moffat (2003: 45) stwierdza, że "skuteczny plan reintegracji ze społeczeństwem motywuje w kierunku autonomii i pozostawania z dala od kontroli ze strony innych.…”

Factors associated with successful reintegration for male offenders: a systematic narrative review with implicit causal model

“…The quality of release plan has been found to have greater predictive accuracy on recidivism and reimprisonment than dynamic and static risk assessments. Once released into the community, research has shown a person’s connection to their community is related to recidivism (Folk et al, 2016 ) and that positive social bonds promote desistence (Kay, 2022 ; Laub & Sampson, 1993 , 2001 ; Walker et al, 2013 ). The expectations a person has when they are released from prison are also important.…”