Putting Desistance Research to Work: Policy and Desistance Theory

It has been said that research should be useful as well as used. Unfortunately, much of the work on desistance remains theoretical and largely separate from the policy world. Some researchers, in fact, have argued that major correlates of desistance (such as marriage) are not relevant to policy. Fortunately, research on desistance of late has not agreed on this score, increasingly concerning itself with the criminal justice system. In this chapter, Rocque discusses how desistance research could be incorporated into criminal justice policy—in other words, what would desistance research and theory imply we should do to reduce offending? In addition, the chapter shows how certain policies already in place are relevant to desistance research. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of the future of desistance scholarship. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.