ABSTRACT

Building on the work of other scholars, this chapter considers both the implications of desistance research for criminal justice supervision and criminal justice policy and some potential obstacles in moving towards recommended supervision practice. Among the identified obstacles are (i) a managerial approach that sees individualisation of practice as problematic; (ii) tensions between a prevalent ‘risk agenda’ based on past events and results from desistance research about the importance of positive fresh events in helping people turn away from crime; and (iii) political anxieties resulting from the strength of penal populist ideologies. Despite these obstacles, there are compelling reasons to develop better supervision practices to support desistance, given that almost all offenders wish to desist and that they make many moves to do so on their own initiative. The development of demonstration projects is recommended.