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Desistance: A Utopian Perspective
Author(s) -
PATTON DAVID,
FARRALL STEPHEN
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the howard journal of crime and justice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.462
H-Index - 7
eISSN - 2059-1101
pISSN - 2059-1098
DOI - 10.1111/hojo.12406
Subject(s) - prison , transformative learning , perspective (graphical) , restorative justice , reading (process) , politics , sociology , intervention (counseling) , psychology , criminology , aesthetics , political science , law , pedagogy , visual arts , art , psychiatry
The written diaries of 43 adult male respondents from a prison sample that had participated in a restorative justice intervention reveal a nuanced and dynamic process of desistance via their hopes and pains of anticipated desistance at the micro, meso and macro levels. A utopian reading of the respondents’ hopes and pains of desistance is developed which reveals that their diaries express a utopian vision that is not just personal, but also inherently political, radical, collective and transformative. Their pains of desistance on the other hand, reveal a critique and condemnation of the current societal and structural apparatus. The necessity for radical and collective change is clear, if desisters and society are to reach their full potential.