RT Article
T1 Circles of Support and Accountability: The Role of Social Relations in Core Member Desistance
JF International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology
VO 66
IS 10/11
SP 1071
OP 1092
A1 Richards, Kelly
LA English
YR 2022
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1809030773
AB Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA) appear to reduce the sexual recidivism of core members (i.e., individuals convicted of sexual offending). It remains unclear, however, how they do so. While much previous scholarship has hypothesized that the relations between core members and CoSA volunteers promote desistance from sexual offending, there has been no theoretically-informed research that specifically interrogates these relations. This article begins to address this gap by examining the relations formed in and by CoSA through the lens of Donati’s theory of relational reflexivity. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 62 CoSA participants across six CoSA programs located in the USA and Canada, it proffers a new theorization of the role of social relations in core members’ desistance. Findings from the study will enable CoSA practitioners around the globe to explicate and deepen their practice around more rigorous theoretical precepts.
K1 Sexual Offending
K1 Social Relations
K1 Desistance
K1 circles of support and accountability
DO 10.1177/0306624X20964094