BREAKING FREEGangs and Desistance
Dr Mart in Glynn Honorary Research Fellow – The University of Wolverhampton
Winston Churchil l Fel low (2010)
Prevention/Early InterventionProvide support to local areasPathways outPunishment and EnforcementPartnership working
Ending gang and youth violence (2011)
•Father absence•Poor Self concept•Code of the streets•Effects of incarceration•Community Disconnect•Silences•Limited Social Capital
Joining a gang (Glynn, 2014)
1.Outside world is chaotic and stressful.
2. Impulsive actions derails desistance trajectory.
3.Family relationships are often weakened.
4.Gang members can have unmet health, education, employment, and housing needs.
5.Gang Members face retribution post-release.
6.Gang Members face barriers related to civic participation.
Gang Member Worldview (Glynn, 2014)
.Social determinants of health are the condit ions in which people are born, grow, l ive, work and age, shaped by the distr ibution of money, power and resources at global, national and local levels.
Gang as Social Determinant of Health
Termination point of offending
Cessation of criminal activity
Lack of continued involvement & investment in criminal activity
Desistance - Definition
Types of Desistance
Primary In and out of Criminality
Secondary Abandon crime for good
Tertiary One’s sense of belonging to family and community.
‘Gang Work’ tends to focus on offenders’ risk and needs, but they also have strengths and resources that
they can use to overcome obstacles to desistance (Maruna and LeBel 2003).
Since desistance is about discovering agency, interventions need to encourage and respect self-
determination; this means working with offenders not on them (McCulloch 2005; McNeill 2006).
Supporting Desistance
The desistance paradigm (forefronts the change process)
Help in navigation towards desistance to reduce harm and make good to offenders, victims and communities
Explicit dialogue and negotiation assessing risks, needs and strengths and resources; and exploring opportunities
to make good
Collaboratively defined tasks which tackle risks and needs and target obstacles to desistance by developing
the offender’s human and social capital
Desistance Paradigm – (McNeil, 2010)
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