RT Article
T1 Desistance for a long-term drug-involved sample of adult offenders: the importance of identity transformation
JF Criminal justice and behavior
VO 43
IS 2
SP 164
OP 186
A1 Bachman, Ronet 1960-
A2 Kerrison, Erin
A2 Paternoster, Raymond 1952-2017
A2 O'Connell, Daniel J.
A2 Smith, Lionel
LA English
YR 2016
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1885049021
AB Using a mixed-race sample of male and female drug-involved offenders who were released from prison in the early 1990s and re-interviewed in 2009 through 2011, this article represents perhaps the first attempt to determine the utility of the identity theory of desistance (ITD) in explaining desistance in a contemporary cohort of adult drug-involved offenders. Supporting the ITD, interview narratives revealed that the vast majority of offenders who successfully desisted from crime and substance misuse had first transformed their offender identity into a non-offender identity. Although partnership and employment did not appear to be significant turning points per se for the majority of our respondents, rekindling relationships with extended family and finding living-wage employment did serve to solidify new prosocial identities once the transformation had occurred.
K1 Desistance
K1 drug-involved offenders
K1 identity theory of desistance
DO 10.1177/0093854815604012