ABSTRACT
This chapter summarises and organises what is known about the ways in which macro-level structures shape routes out of crime for former offenders. It starts by reviewing what we know about the relationship between structures and processes of desistance from crime in general, concluding that whilst many accept that both agency and structures shape processes of desistance, we have, as a community, tended of late to focus on agentic processes rather more than on the structural processes. This review concentrates on those studies which have uncovered and explored the ways in which wider social, economic, cultural or political processes (i.e. structures) can shape individual or cohort life-courses and trajectories away from crime. Following this, the chapter offers a summary of those structural processes which are related to desistance and gives an indication of the strength of the evidence base for each. The author then briefly outlines his own thinking on how we can explore these matters further, first at the theoretical level and second (as a fourth section) in terms of the sorts of studies which we would need to undertake in order to throw further light on this area of research.
