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Female Desistance: A Review of the Literature

Authors:
Elanie Rodermond at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam/Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR)
Elanie Rodermond
  • Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam/Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR)
Candace Kruttschnitt at University of Toronto
Candace Kruttschnitt
Anne-Marie Slotboom at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Anne-Marie Slotboom
Catrien Bijleveld at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Catrien Bijleveld
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To examine whether, and if so how, male-based theories of desistance also apply to female offenders, this article reviews 44 studies on female desistance. Where available, gender differences in desistance are considered. Having children and supportive relationships is found to be important for females, in addition to economic independence, the absence of drugs and individual agency. Gender differences are found for the influence of children, supportive relationships, employment and the absence of criminal peers. This review shows that male-based theories of desistance seem applicable to females as well. Furthermore, results underscore the importance of considering how individual and social factors interact during the process of desistance. Implications for future research and for strategies for promoting desistance are discussed.
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... It can be assumed that parenting intervention during reentry may have an effect on recidivism, as motherhood can both serve as a motivator to remain crime-free and as a stressor that may lead to failed desistance (Rodermond et al., 2016). Indeed, spending time caring for children and feeling influential and effective as a mother seems to contribute to complying with the requirements of supervision and avoiding arrest, but mothers' intentions may be overwhelmed by the numerous challenges in these mothers' lives (Adams et al., 2017). ...
... Also in line with the main intervention goals , our results suggest intervention effects on recidivism: Intervention mothers remained more often crime-free according to official records, and their number of offenses was also smaller-both for 5 and 10 years after intervention-than for mothers who did not receive the intervention. These results add to the literature about motherhood as a motivator to remain crime-free (Rodermond et al., 2016) and suggest that the positive effects of parenting programs on parental recidivism may last longer than the promising results that were already found in previous research (Eddy et al., 2022). ...
Better start to better future? Long-term follow-up of a parenting intervention for mothers being released from incarceration
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2024
  • J Exp Criminol
Objectives This study examined the long-term effects of the Better Start program, an adaptation of Incredible Years parent training enhanced with home visits, for families with mothers being released from incarceration. Methods Participants in this quasi-experimental longitudinal study were 224 mothers, of whom 145 (64.7%) received intervention and the other mothers constituted a no intervention group. Official criminal justice records and mother reports of parenting behaviors and child behavior were collected up to 10 years after intervention. Mixed effects models, Cox regression analyses, and latent linear growth models were used to test potential intervention effects on adolescent delinquency, maternal recidivism, parenting behaviors, and disruptive child behaviors. Results Outcomes favoring participants in the intervention condition were found for adolescent delinquency, maternal recidivism, and the number of disruptive child behaviors. Conclusions Effects on maternal recidivism and delinquency in their children indicate that the Better Start program contributes to preventing the intergenerational transmission of delinquency.
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... This attempt is also necessary for desistance research because there are only a few comparative studies on desistance, but they have consistently demonstrated that the desistance process differs between countries (Barry, 2017), cultures (Segev, 2020), races/ethnicities (Calverley, 2013), and religions (Linge, 2021). Comparative research is crucial because most current research focuses on middle-aged white men, ignoring other segments of the offender population (c.f., Robertson and Wainwright, 2020;Rodermond et al., 2016;Villeneuve et al., 2019). Based on our findings of geographical disparity in desistance research, we invited desistance scholars to perform comparative research to unravel the complexity of desistance. ...
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... This attempt is also necessary for desistance research because there are only a few comparative studies on desistance, but they have consistently demonstrated that the desistance process differs between countries (Barry et al., 2017), cultures (Segev, 2020), races/ethnicities (Calverley, 2013), and religions (Linge, 2021). Comparative research is crucial because most current research focuses on middle-aged white men, ignoring other segments of the offender population (c.f., Robertson & Wainwright, 2020;Rodermond et al., 2016;Villeneuve et al., 2019). Based on our findings of geographical disparity in desistance research, we invited desistance scholars to perform comparative research to unravel the complexity of desistance. ...
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... Although the mechanisms by which parenthood is thought to reduce criminal activity are similar for men and women, parenthood is often thought to have a greater desistance potential for mothers than fathers. This has been attributed to gender differences in time invested in childcare and societal expectations of caregiving roles (Rodermond et al., 2016). Compared to imprisoned fathers, mothers are more likely to coreside with their children before imprisonment, and also more often expect to live with their children upon release (Foster, 2010;Glaze & Maruschak, 2010 However, mothers in prison are also more likely than imprisoned fathers to experience a wide variety of risk factors, such as a history of homelessness and abuse, mental health problems, and foster care placements for their children (Glaze & Maruschak, 2010). ...
Paternal imprisonment, fatherhood, and family relationships
Thesis
Full-text available
  • Jan 2024
Paternal imprisonment can have significant consequences for family life. This dissertation provides insights into the complex interplay between paternal imprisonment, fatherhood, and family relationships. It shows that paternal imprisonment can have a range of effects on family life, ranging from no discernible consequences to negative and even positive outcomes. This depends on both the quality of relationships within the family prior to imprisonment and on pre-existing risks such as domestic violence, imprisonment history, and substance use problems. During imprisonment, the opportunities to maintain meaningful family contact play a crucial role in how paternal imprisonment affects family life. This influence continues into the post-release period. Families with stronger family relationships are more resilient to the negative consequences of a paternal imprisonment. Furthermore, involved fatherhood after release from prison is associated with a reduced likelihood of reoffending by fathers. Taken together, these insights are key to developing effective policies to limit the unintended and predominantly negative consequences of parental imprisonment for families. It is my hope that this dissertation will prove valuable for everyone dedicated to supporting families with a parent in prison.
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... These findings are consistent with empirical studies showing that IPV is a correlate and predictor of crime, arrest, and incarceration for women (Brennan et al., 2012;DeHart et al., 2014;Gottlieb and Mahabir, 2021), yet they highlight the need for the legal system to consider IPV when considering the best ways to support women who come into contact with the system. Further, prior research has documented that women may show desistance through supportive relationships (Rodermond et al., 2016), demonstrating the need for examining nuanced measures of relational quality, including positive aspects of the couple relationship, as predictors of legal systems involvement. ...
The long-term collateral consequences of juvenile justice involvement for females
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2024
Introduction Females are the fastest growing justice involved population in the United States, yet there is relatively little empirical research on the collateral consequences of juvenile justice involvement specifically for females. A growing body of empirical research underscores linkages between juvenile justice involvement and negative health and psychosocial outcomes, both in the short and long term. Method The current study describes the long-term collateral consequences of juvenile justice involvement for females previously involved in the juvenile justice system, drawing from a longitudinal dataset of 166 women who were initially recruited in adolescence due to chronic and severe justice system involvement. Participants were 15 years-old on average at study enrollment and 35 years-old on average at the current assessment. This paper describes the adolescent and adult experiences of the sample, therefore depicting the developmental trajectories of risk and protective factors for females involved with juvenile justice. Results As adults, 73% of the sample experienced arrest and 36% experienced incarceration. High rates of mental and physical health problems were reported, including that 50% of the sample met diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder. Over 400 children were born to the sample, with high rates of documented intergenerational child welfare involvement. Discussion Study findings are discussed in the context of best practices for supporting adolescent girls involved with the juvenile justice system.
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Women’s Homelessness and the Justice System: A Study of Desistance and Social (Re)integration Among Canadian Women Who Used or Did Not Use Criminal Activities to Survive
Article
  • May 2024
  • CRIM JUSTICE BEHAV
Women experiencing homelessness (WEH) are a marginalized group who often lack support services, leading them to adopt alternative survival strategies that leave them at risk of being victimized and becoming involved with the justice-system. To better understand this problem, we analyzed the adaptive strategies Canadian WEH use to survive. Comparing the life histories of WEH who turned to criminal activities ( n = 4) with WEH who demonstrated prosocial resilience ( n = 4) makes it possible to identify protective and risk factors for criminal behavior and to propose adaptive strategies that can be used to support these women to adopt a prosocial lifestyle. The results provide a framework for understanding the needs of WEH, filling a gap that results from the focus on men needs in most scientific literature and by many resources, and suggesting that meeting those needs may reduce the likelihood that WEH will become involved with the justice-system.
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The interplay of social capital, faith, and offender resettlement
Article
  • Apr 2024
Purpose This paper aims to explore the intricate relationship between social capital, faith and prison-leaver resettlement, emphasising how penal voluntary sector organisations (PVSOs) aid prison-leavers in their resettlement and desistance journeys, following incarceration. Design/methodology/approach Employing a combination of narrative and thematic analysis, data was collected from 20 prison-leavers in England through semi-structured interviews. Purposive and snowball sampling was used to recruit participants from various community-based resettlement settings. Findings Thematic analysis revealed the emergence of faith in various iterations in facilitating desistance, Transforming Rehabilitation failure, identity transformation of the prison-leaver, the role of social capital in effective resettlement and the importance of PVSOs. In particular, the findings demonstrate the vital role of a “Faith Anchor”, defined in this paper as a trust-based relationship with an individual or spiritual entity, in facilitating desistance. This paper argues the need to recognise and fully integrate social capital building, faith and specialised support from PVSOs, as essential components of successful offender resettlement and desistance journeys. Research limitations/implications The study considers the connection between faith, social capital and offender resettlement. Although demonstrating the role of faith in positive change and community engagement, there are limitations. Primarily, by exclusively recruiting participants through PVSOs, it might overlook varied resettlement experiences. Additionally, measuring desistance is complex and is limited by some academic views that it centres around abstinence. Although small-scale saturation was reached; generalisation should be approached with caution. Notably, post-Transforming Rehabilitation, the human cost of resettlement gaps became evident. Future research could benefit from a longitudinal lens, tracing desistance beyond initial PVSO interactions and offering richer, longitudinal insights. Practical implications Significance of “faith anchors”: A “faith anchor” aids the desistance process. Integrating faith in resettlement offers emotional support for prison leavers. Value of social capital: It is pivotal for offender resettlement. Positive social networks are key for successful reintegration. Role of PVSOs: They provide vital resettlement support. Enhanced collaboration can optimise assistance for prison leavers. Addressing current system shortcomings: Rectifying the effects of Transforming Rehabilitation ensures holistic support, catering to prison leavers’ needs. Concept of “faith exchange”: Merging faith and support offers tailored resettlement approaches, fostering effective reintegration. Social implications The study underscores the social implications of effective offender resettlement strategies. The integration of “faith anchors” and social capital aids in the personal rehabilitation of prison leavers and also supports community cohesion. By acknowledging faith as indictive to building trust-based relationships, communities can reduce the stigma associated with former offenders, promoting inclusivity and understanding. Additionally, the essential role of PVSOs highlights the value of community-driven initiatives in supporting reintegration. A combined approach that combines faith, social capital and community support can reshape societal perspectives on desistance, encouraging a more inclusive and empathetic approach to offender reintegration. Originality/value The insights gained contribute to the evolving discourse on prison-leaver resettlement and desistance and uniquely highlight the potential of a combined approach between social capital, faith and voluntary sector support, in achieving desistance goals. The term “faith exchange” emerges from this study as an original conceptual contribution, accentuating the relationship between faith and support in resettlement and desistance.
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Insulation from loss: Exploring the impact of changing relationships in the liminal period between reoffending and desistance, and substance misuse and recovery
Article
  • Apr 2024
This article focuses on changes to relationships during the transition to desistance. This is important as liminality in offending behaviour is well-established meaning that people may move forward and backward through the offending cycle. Research on the nature of relationships as people move towards desistance is thus essential to understand the impact of change for individuals during a period of transition. This article explores the impact of change to relationships for both men and women contributing to gendered understandings of transitions to desistance. Based on interviews with 18 men and 10 women completing probation, two themes emerged to describe the impact of change, which were loss and gain, and rebuilding. These themes explain how changes to relationships can hinder or encourage desistance in the liminal period from reoffending to desistance.
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Effects of Employment and Unemployment on Serious Offending in a High-Risk Sample of Men and Women from Ages 18 to 32 in the Netherlands
Article
Full-text available
  • Aug 2012
Using longitudinal data on the criminal careers of a group of high-risk men and women (N = 540) who were institutionalized in a Dutch juvenile justice institution in the nineties, this article addresses the effects of (un)employment on crime. Results show that, for both men and women, employment rates are below average and stability in employment is low. Nevertheless, random effects models consistently show employment to reduce the estimated number of convictions for both men and women. Employment duration has an additional effect on crime, but only for men. Unemployment duration increases the estimated number of convictions for women, while slightly decreasing them for men.
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Criminal Careers in London and Stockholm: A Cross-National Comparative Study
Chapter
  • Jan 1994
The main aim of this paper is to compare two cohorts of working-class males born in 1953, from London and Stockholm, on criminal career features between ages 10 and 25: prevalence, individual offending frequency, continuity, onset, desistance and duration. In addition, the relationship between age of onset and other criminal career features, and characteristics of chronic offenders, are reported for both cohorts. Before describing the results, the criminal career approach and cross-national comparisons are discussed, and then the two longitudinal surveys and steps taken to increase the comparability between them.
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Crime and The Transition to Parenthood: The Role of Sex and Relationship Context
Article
  • Dec 2012
Research on desistance from crime has given little attention to the transition to parenthood as a ‘turning point.’ Parenthood might have different implications for men and women, as well as for individuals in different relationship contexts. Using a within-individual design and Norwegian register data on men and women who became parents in 1997–2001, we provide detailed descriptions of offending patterns. The results imply that, for men and women, the relative likelihood of offending declines before the birth. In the post-birth period, women’s offending resumes at a lower likelihood than before the birth, while men’s stabilizes at a low level. For men with no relationship to the other parent, the likelihood of offending continues to decline after the birth.
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Crime in the Breaking: Gender Differences in Desistance
Article
  • Jan 1998
Despite increasing interest in understanding patterns of criminal behavior over the life course and, especially, desistance from crime, evidence about the predictors of these experiences has been derived only from samples of male offenders. We evaluate whether there are gender differences in the predictors of both self-reported illegal earnings and arrest among samples of recently released male and female offenders. Our analysis of gender differences illustrates how both the behavior of the offender and the behavior of law shape our understanding of the transition out of crime. We analyze event history data from a large-scale social experiment that provided employment to male and female offenders. The results indicate that (1) gender differences in the predictors of desistance largely depend on the domain of behavior under consideration; (2) indicators of normative status, as opposed to the perceived risks of crime or age-graded informal controls, are particularly important determinants of women's risks of rearrest.
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Crime in the Making: Pathways and Turning Points Through Life
Book
  • Jul 1993
  • CRIME DELINQUENCY
This explanation of crime and deviance over the life course is based on the re-analysis of a classic set of data: Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck's mid-century study of 500 delinquents and 500 non-delinquents from childhood to adulthood. More than five years ago, Robert Sampson and John Laub dusted off 60 cartons of the Gluecks' data that had been stored in the basement of the Harvard Law School and undertook a lengthy process of recoding, computerizing, and reanalyzing it. On the basis of their findings, Sampson and Laub developed a theory of informal social control over the life course which integrates three ideas. First, social bonds to family and school inhibit delinquency in childhood and adolescence. Second, there is continuity in antisocial and deviant behaviour from childhood through adulthood across various dimensions, such as crime, alcohol abuse, divorce and unemployment. And finally, despite these continuities, attachment to the labour force and cohesive marriage sharply mitigate criminal activities. Sampson and Laub thus acknowledge the importance of childhood behaviours and individual differences, but reject the implication that adult social factors have little relevance. They seek to account for both stability and change in crime and deviance throughout the life course. "Crime in the making" challenges several major ideas found in contemporary theory and aims to provide an important new foundation for rethinking criminal justice policy.
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Trajectories of Change in Criminal Offending: Good Marriages and the Desistance Process
Article
  • Apr 1998
Building on Sampson and Laub (1993), we draw an analogy between changes in criminal offending spurred by the formation of social bonds and an investment process. This conceptualization suggests that because investment in social relationships is gradual and cumulative, resulting desistance will be gradual and cumulative. Using a dynamic statistical model developed by Nagin and Land (1993), we test our ideas about change using yearly longitudinal data from Glueck and Glueck's (1950, 1968) classic study of criminal careers. Our results show that desistance from crime is facilitated by the development of quality marital bonds, and that this influence is gradual and cumulative over time.
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