The Ambiguities of Desistance: Ex-Offenders, Higher Education and the Desistance Journey

This book explores the ongoing and individual desistance journeys of ex-offenders during re-integration into society, introducing nuanced and rich data around the growing interest in desistance and what leads someone to move away from crime. Through in-depth interviews and his own lived experiences as a prisoner, the author highlights the importance of Higher Education in the desistance process as a conduit for change and rehabilitation. He explores the complex life process of the ex-offender, investigating the introspective and existential experiences that lead individuals towards an ongoing desistance journey in which they re-evaluate their sense of selves and develop new identities. The author argues that in the current system, the focus on crime loses sight of the more complex and unending process of desistance. While becoming accepted by society is essential to desistance, society creates many barriers that prevent this from happening and the criminal justice system provides no formal rite of passage for ex-offenders attempting to re-integrate into society, thus leading to an unending transformative cycle of desistance. This book seeks to synthesise and critically review desistance theory as it has emerged within contemporary criminology, and enlarge its capacity to engage with the complexities of the lives analysed in this research.