ABSTRACT
Early explanations of the desistance process focused on sociological processes and concepts such as maturation, but recently scholars have turned their attention to the study of agency. Although many theorists agree that agency is involved in behavioural change, there is a lack of consensus regarding some of its key attributes including its content and structure (the ‘what’), the timing and reasons for its emergence at particular points in the life-course (the ‘why’), the ends to which it is directed (the ‘wherefore’) and the mechanisms that operate at the intersection between the individual and the social world (the ‘how’).
