Deirdre Healy

The Dynamics of Desistance : Charting Pathways Through Change

1. Desistance and Reintegration 2. Issues and Challenges 3. Person and Place 4. Thinking, Attitudes and Social Circumstances 5. Multiple Roads to Desistance 6. Into the Crucible 7. A Catalyst for Change? 8. Looking Forward 9. Betwixt and Between

Calling Time on Crime: Motivation, Generativity and Agency in Irish Probationers

Why people remain involved in, or detach themselves from, criminal activity is not fully understood. This article presents the results of an investigation of psychosocial changes involved in the process of desistance among 73 male probationers in Dublin, Ireland. The stated desire of the great majority was to cease offending and their aspirations revolved around finding a job and a place to live, and stopping drug use. Generative concerns were raised infrequently. There was little evidence of agency, with few individuals talking of empowerment or self-mastery. These findings mark an interesting point of contrast with other research in this area.

Changing Fate? Agency and the desistance process

There is a significant conceptual divide between criminological theories that treat offenders as rational agents who freely choose their actions and those that portray offenders as individuals whose behaviour is determined by external forces. Recently, research into desistance from crime has produced a more complex and nuanced account of crime causation which acknowledges the interplay between agency and structure. Yet, while the concept of agency is frequently invoked in contemporary discourse, the variety of definitions and measures employed by researchers makes it difficult to establish a clear and consistent picture of its role. This article attempts to address this deficit by evaluating the contributions of agency-centred theories of desistance. An integrated framework, which aims to consolidate existing knowledge about agency and provide additional insights into its role in desistance, is then proposed.

Betwixt and Between: The Role of Psychosocial Factors in the Early Stages of Desistance:

This article presents the results of an investigation into the psychosocial changes involved in the early stages of desistance, which to date have attracted little empirical or theoretical attention. The study used a mixed-methods design to produce a nuanced account of the shifts that occur in cognitions and social circumstances as offenders make the transition to desistance. Three psychometric instruments were completed by 73 adult males aged 18 to 35 who had acquired at least two previous convictions and were living in Dublin, Ireland. Participants who reported no offending in the past month were defined as ‘‘primary desisters.’’ In a regression analysis, age, age at onset of offending, and criminal thinking styles emerged as important predictors of primary desistance, whereas social circumstances and pro-criminal attitudes did not. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Criminal Thinking on Probation: A Perspective from Ireland

This article examines the use of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) with a sample of 72 Irish men on probation. It tests the hypothesis that probationers who reported no offending for at least a year (secondary desisters) would have lower PICTS scores—indicating a less active criminal belief system—than those who remained involved in crime and that probationers who did not report committing crime during the past month (primary desisters) would have lower scores than those who did. Significant differences (p < .05) were observed on three of the eight scales and on Current Criminal Thinking for the secondary desisters and on six of the eight scales for the primary desisters. Compared with English and American prisoners, the Irish scored higher on all eight scales.

Probation in the Republic of Ireland: Context and Challenges

The role of probation in the Republic of Ireland is poorly understood and has attracted little critical attention. The guiding legislation is outdated and the Probation and Welfare Service does not generate the information required to evaluate its own performance. To become more accountable, and demonstrably effective, will require a determined effort both to meet rigorous quality standards in terms of research design and to overcome some of the problems of scale that beset small jurisdictions.

‘An inside job’: An autobiographical account of desistance:

Various theories have been put forward to explain the processes underpinning desistance from crime. To provide additional insights into this phenomenon, this article presents an autobiographical account of one man’s journey towards a crime-free life. The narrative reveals a change process that is at once personal and universal, and describes the external forces that shaped his pathway to desistance as well as his experiences of personal fortitude and agency. In addition, it highlights the role of probation supervision as a catalyst for change. The autobiographical account is accompanied by a reflective academic commentary that situates these personal life experiences within the wider desistance literature. While the reader may view the autobiographical tone of this article as subjective, it should be noted that the account is not simply a re-telling of an individual life story but offers a critical appraisal of existing knowledge viewed through the lens of one person’s journey towards desistance.

Hidden voices: Practitioner perspectives on the early histories of probation in Ireland

Probation practice, past and present, is under-researched in Ireland, with limited attention paid to the personal accounts of the people of probation such as administrators, probation officers, clients and rehabilitation workers. This article presents findings from the first phase of a project which aims to construct a comprehensive and multi-faceted historical account of probation practice in Ireland from the perspective of core stakeholders. It begins with an overview of its ‘formal’ history, before presenting key findings from interviews with probation officers who began work in the 1960s and 1970s. The core objectives of the project are to shed light on probation officers’ occupational identities, map the probation sub-field, and bridge the ‘governmentality gap’ between official and frontline narratives; goals that are achieved through the application of an oral history methodology. A thematic framework of analysis is employed in order to better hear the individual and collective voices at the frontline of probation in Ireland during the timeframe.