Promoting desistance A workshop exploring desistance and how best to support it’s development Dave Wood

Overview and objectives ●Consider what desistance is. ●Explore the nature and findings of the research. ●Think through what desistance understandings mean for practice.

A little about me Probation – 13 years PhD research Development of Metanoeo: Coaching Academic Training Future direction

Session ethos We all bring different concerns perspectives and experiences: ●Listen ●Share ●Engage ●Reflect Be prepared to challenge your own preconceptions and understandings.

Introduction ●Allan Weaver – The Road from Crime ●Social nature – back to probation roots ●Paradigm as opposed to a practice theory

What is desistance? ●Journey ●Difficult ●Lapse and relapse ●When has someone desisted? Onset Persistence Desistance

Exercise 1 Have you ever asked someone why they stopped committing crime? If so, what did they say?

A look at the research Qualitative - internal and external factors: Maturity Family / relationships Sobriety Employment Hope and motivation Giving Place in society Identity Being believed in

Relating this to theory Negative self-scripting Becker and master / auxiliary status Redemption scripts Strain theory and onset Stories are similar but they’re not the same Stories are similar but they’re not the same

Exercise 2 Listening to the stories in the video; what are the issues which are important for people in terms of keeping them in crime? How does this match with your experience?

Summarising the research Enablement IdentityReconciliationHope

Developing assisted desistance Fergus McNeillFergus McNeill: Enablement instead of control Meaningful relationships Optimistic and avoid labelling Strengths not just risks Recognising achievement Practical assistance Working with family Role of communities

Emergence of Good Lives Emergence in sex offender treatment Primary goods Human well-being Cultural context... but some basic needs Individualised weighted plan Positive psychology

A case study Rudi Richardson – Founder of Streetlytes

Exercise 3 What does this mean for your practice? Relationship quality Facilitating change Kind of journey Nature of journey Identity and diversity

Conclusion Liberation not management