Adult bonds such as stable work and marriage can redirect criminal careers, so desistance is produced by later circumstances rather than fixed early on.
Sampson and Laub's 1993 reanalysis of the Gluecks' longitudinal data found that childhood risk predicted offending and did not determine its course: men with similar histories diverged sharply depending on whether adult attachments arrived. The turning point works by restructuring routine activity, supplying supervision and giving the person something to lose.
In practice
- Two employees with identical disciplinary records diverge entirely, and the difference is which one was given a role worth keeping.
- A rehabilitation programme that produces a job outperforms one that produces insight.
- Subject
- Law & Politics
- Essay
- Competing accounts of how power works