Abstract
The co-occurrence of substance use and offending is well-known to practitioners in the field; nevertheless, the relationship between the two is not straightforward, nor is the relationship between moves away from crime and from substance use (or rather, addiction). Practitioner and researcher experience suggests that for some people these processes – desistance from offending and recovery from substance use – are related. So the significant disconnect to date between desistance and recovery research is surprising, with research in both areas guilty of conflating or poorly elucidating the (relationship between the) two processes of change.
This edited collection attempts to draw these two areas of research closer together, concentrating on one factor that has emerged in research on both change processes: transformations in identity, both personal and social. The chapters explore diverse aspects of identity that may have particular salience for these change processes. The collection includes empirical research, while other topics are addressed theoretically, drawing on existing literature.
In Chapter 1, Hamilton gives a helpful, and often bypassed, introduction to identity and its meanings. In Chapter 2, Robinson explores the interplay of emotions and identity and how repression, expression and regulation of emotions, such as fear and shame, feed into both offending and desistance. This small-scale empirical study contributes to the nascent field of criminological research on the role of emotions in desistance. Robinson’s research also commences an important exploration of the role of gender, which is developed further in later chapters.
Chapter 3 reports findings on aspirational masculinities from Sloan’s ethnographic doctoral study of a male prison wing. She argues that imprisonment may lead to a reappraisal of the ‘audience that matters’ (p. 51) to prisoners in terms of gender performances. Consequently, aspirational masculinities might be harnessed in support of desistance, if resources are available to support revised performances to new audiences. Chapter 4 presents Goodwin’s doctoral research on the lived experience of women who are trying to move away from crime. Her ‘micro-longitudinal’ (p. 72) approach gives her an opportunity to observe changes near-contemporaneously. She focuses on the impact of victimization, especially domestic abuse, on identity change, suggesting that diminished self-confidence inhibits the formation of stable new identities. For some women, pre-abuse identities offer potential pro-social selves to return to.
Chapter 6 presents Calverley’s influential doctoral research on desistance journeys across different cultural contexts; contexts which impact on social processes (e.g. marriage), attitudes towards desisters and social capital. Chapter 7 utilizes existing literature to examine the impacts of extreme ‘othering’ on desistance efforts, being identified with the particularly stigmatized and excluded group: sexual offenders.
Subsequent chapters foreground recovery from addiction. In Chapter 8, Best provides the most expansive discussion of the desistance-recovery relationship. He examines differences in recovery pathways between those with and without prison histories and applies his work on social identity theory in recovery to desistance. His contribution is to forefront the role of communities in processes of change, with potential links to Weaver’s (2016) work on coproduction and mutual-aid groups in desistance.
In the last substantial chapter, Irving proposes, tests and revises a conceptual model for behavioural change among participants of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) in long-term recovery. Of general interest to addictions researchers/practitioners, I was interested by his identification in his participants’ narratives of ‘linguistic echoes’ (p. 212) from the core texts of AA. This suggests to me that those researching processes of change in people for whom needs coincide (e.g. substance use and offending) might fruitfully examine which services (and institutions, e.g. churches) make narratives available to people with which to make sense of their experiences. This will impact both on services’ success at supporting identity transformations and how change processes are narrated, including which process is seen as primary, as when Colman and Vander Laenen (2012: 1) found that, for their participants, ‘desistance is subordinate to recovery’.
This collection provides an interesting introduction and, in some cases, fresh empirical insights, into some less discussed aspects of identity. It will be useful for anyone grappling with the role of gender in processes of change, and is revealing on the potential impact of group/community membership. However, in its attempt to encompass a wide range of issues, it misses a tight focus on what Robinson terms ‘the central question for this volume. Are the processes of change – the transformations – similar in ceasing crime and problematic substance use?’ (p. 250). It is not clear that all authors had this in mind when drafting contributions to this volume. With Best’s being a notable exception, the majority of chapters are focused on either desistance or recovery with desistance receiving far greater attention. That said, Robinson’s concluding chapter identifies fertile areas for future research and methodological innovations which might lead to new insights into this question. Such direction promises exciting future collections to take us further along the road to understanding the interrelationship between these two processes of change.