The Unmaking of Crime

The Unmaking of Crime documents the pathways of offenders reforming their journey and desisting from crime, and assesses the opportunities and limitations of the criminal justice system in aiding this process. Starting with known factors involved in desistance - the influence of family, relationships, employment, or geographical relocations - it expands the lens to include new perspectives, such as the impact of drug abuses on the post-sentence period, the interaction of religion with delinquency, and the reconfigurations of citizenship. Building on original qualitative research in Paris, the book considers a range of factors in the process of desistance, such as spheres of socialisation, the role of stigma and the opportunities offered or denied after a time in a criminal lifestyle, and the relationship between those seeking to desist from crime and key institutions and resources.

Valerian Benazeth holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Paris-Saclay (France) and is an associate researcher at the CESDIP Research Centre. Educated in France and in the United States as an exchange student (UTEP, TX), and then as a teaching assistant (Williams College, MA), he conducted one of the first empirical studies about desistance in France. His doctoral research integrated three years of fieldwork and received merit scholarships from the City of Paris and from the French Department of Justice. After serving for a time as the head of the research department inside the French Youth Justice Board, he resumed teaching at university in France.

1. Introduction: beyond 'us' and 'them' 2. Understanding knowledge about desistance: The empirical and practical contribution of a continent of research 3. Methodology: retracing desistance journeys using in-depth interviews 4. Is there a French accent in desistance processes? 5.The economics of desistance: experimenting with the limits of its power to deconstruct the cult of money 6. Desistance and religion: a passport to redefine one's affiliations? 7. The intertwining of addictions in desistance processes: the role of an airlock or a bridge 8. Becoming an ordinary citizen again: another anchor for the desistance processes 9. The ambivalent effects of prison 10. Desistance and probation: the paradox of limited institutional effects 11. Desistance and electronic surveillance: leverage with varying degrees of success 12. Contextualising and extending knowledge about desistance