ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the landscape from which peer mentoring in criminal justice is emerging. It begins by locating peer mentoring within the broader context of the penal voluntary sector, taking account of some of the challenges and potentials this context poses. It then focuses upon some of the claims being made about peer mentoring, including that it changes people, that it is better than what has gone before and that it is egalitarian. The chapter closes with a discussion of the broader academic context, which appears to have been instrumental in allowing peer mentoring to enter mainstream practice – that is – an increased criminological focus on how people come to ‘desist’ from crime or leave crime behind.
