ABSTRACT
Most offenders, even persistent offenders, eventually desist from crime; and to a significant extent they do this on their own initiative. To the legendary visitor from Mars, these simple facts – and they are facts – might seem to offer huge hope to earth-bound criminal justice systems. Earthly politicians might therefore be expected constantly to reiterate their truth, while the forensic professions and the probation service might be expected to have forged strong links between ‘indigenous’ (offender-initiated) desistance and their own rehabilitation programmes and supervision practice. But, of course, in real life none of this has happened, at least until very recently. It is interesting – but beyond the scope of this chapter – to consider how this strange situation arose.
