ABSTRACT
In attempting these tasks, we are very aware that we are writing at one point in history and so our conceptions of societal influences are culturally and politically biased to this point in time. Studies of desistance are largely based on Western countries, in particular on Europe, North America and Australia – there is at present very little known about processes of desistance in other parts of the world, so there is no possibility of any universal theory or set of explanations. Second, this is a time immediately after the world’s financial systems have gone through a series of shocks and in which there is real austerity in a number of countries. That austerity has increased unemployment and is often increasing economic inequality, in terms of the gap between more and less economically successful members of society. Desisting offenders tend to be towards the bottom of the economic pile – and as people desist, necessarily the amount by which their household budget is constituted by criminally acquired income decreases. Desistance may often go hand in hand with decreased income. In periods of austerity, any job is hard to come by for any young (or older) person. For those marked by criminal records and often without the skills or paper qualifications others will have, it is even harder.
