Personal networks and desistance from crime in young offenders
| Date | 01 March 2021 |
| Published date | 01 March 2021 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1477370819842207 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
842207EUC0010.1177/1477370819842207European Journal of CriminologyMartí et al.
research-article2019
Article
European Journal of Criminology
2021, Vol. 18(2) 235 –253
Personal networks and
© The Author(s) 2019
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desistance from crime
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https://doi.org/10.1177/1477370819842207
DOI: 10.1177/1477370819842207
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in young offenders
Joel Martí , Eugenia Albani,
Aina Ibàñez and José Cid
Universitat Autònoma Barcelona, Spain
Abstract
In this article we analyse the structure, composition and relational resources of young offenders’
personal networks in order to identify how they are related to desistance. We present a mixed-
methods analysis of a sample of young offenders, either in juvenile custody or on probation in
Catalonia’s juvenile justice system. We first construct a typology of personal networks according
to their composition and structure. In each of the profiles we conduct a qualitative analysis in
order to identify the role of relational resources in desistance processes and the meaning that
desisters give to these resources. Results show the different relevance of strong and weak ties
according to the characteristics of the network and explain how these ties may contribute to the
process of desistance.
Keywords
Desistance, juvenile delinquency, juvenile justice, personal networks, social networks
Introduction
Standing between individual and contextual explanations of crime, the relevance of
interpersonal relationships in delinquency has largely been acknowledged in criminol-
ogy (Sutherland et al., [1947] 1992; Thornberry et al., 1994; Warr, 2002; Warr and
Stafford, 1991) and, in recent years, it is possible to identify a growing literature on
delinquency from a social networks approach (among others Haynie, 2001, 2002; Haynie
et al., 2005; McGloin, 2009; McGloin and Shelmer, 2009; Roman et al., 2012; Volker
et al., 2016; Weerman and Smeenk, 2005; Young, 2011; see also the special issue on this
topic in Social Networks journal, edited by Morselli and Boivin, 2017). The interest in
Corresponding author:
Joel Martí, Centre d’Estudis Sociològics sobre la Vida Quotidiana i el Treball (QUIT), Institut d’Estudis del
Treball (IET), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Edifici B – Campus UAB, Cerdanyola del Vallès (Barcelona),
08193, Spain.
Email: joel.marti@uab.cat
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European Journal of Criminology 18(2)
interpersonal relationships is also present in the desistance literature (Boman and Mowen,
2017; Cid and Martí, 2017; Giordano et al., 2003; Laub and Sampson, 2003; Schroeder
et al., 2010; Visher, 2017; Weaver, 2015). However, the extant research is often focused
on the role of specific types of actors (that is, peers, partners or parents) and rarely
addresses the multiple presence of different actors and their interaction with young
offenders in the transition to adulthood (but see Weaver, 2015).
The present article aims to address this gap in the literature by identifying the rela-
tional constraints and resources for desistance that young offenders have within their
personal networks (that is, the diversity of people and groups of people with whom they
interact in their everyday lives). By doing so, our aim is to show that the personal net-
work must be taken into account in order to understand pathways to desistance, and that
these pathways may differ depending on the constraints and the available resources in the
network.
Moreover, an interactionist stance towards desistance is adopted in order to capture
the meaning that desisters give to the interpersonal relationships in their networks, and
how these subjective interpretations of relationships may foster or accompany the pro-
cesses of desistance.
From these standpoints, the objectives of the article are, first, to identify different
types of personal networks of young offenders according to the constraints and resources
that they provide and, second, to explore the roles of these resources in the desistance
process and how they are related to agency.
In the next two sections we discuss previous literature in relation to, first, the role of
different actors in desistance from crime and, second, the network constraints that may
hinder desistance. We then present our empirical approach, which is based on an analysis
of an offender sample drawn from the juvenile justice system in Catalonia. The analysis
is divided into two phases. The first phase uses a quantitative approach to construct a
typology aimed at identifying the diversity in the network’s constraints and potential
resources for change. In the second part we conduct a qualitative analysis on each profile
identified in the quantitative part aimed at revealing the relationships that exist among
personal network, agency and desistance.
Social ties as resources for desistance
The age–delinquency curve is well known in criminological research: offending peaks in
adolescence and progressively drops with the transition to adulthood (Moffit, 1993;
Maruna, 1999). Life-course research shows that in contemporary societies this transition
implies significant changes in personal networks because participation in conventional
adult roles (work, family formation) is coupled not only with establishing new social ties
in work and family settings but also with reducing the centrality of peers in everyday life.
These are aspects that criminological research has largely associated with desistance
from crime (Laub and Sampson, 2003; Sampson and Laub, 1993; Warr, 1998). However,
desistance researchers highlight different key actors and mechanisms implied in transi-
tion processes.
First, the establishment of stable romantic relationships has been highlighted as a key
turning point in the desistance processes insofar as this implies bonding with normative
Martí et al.
237
actors, a process that is usually incompatible with maintaining offending behaviour
(Laub and Sampson, 2003; Sampson and Laub, 1993; Savolainen, 2008).
Second, desistance research highlights the relevance of supportive parent relation-
ships. This support may provide legitimate means of accessing social resources and
reducing strain (Agnew, 2006; Wright et al., 2001), but it also seems to contribute to the
will to change as a means of compensation for the support received (Calverley, 2011; Cid
and Martí, 2017; Schroeder et al., 2010).
Third, desistance processes may be accompanied by a reduction in the amount of time
spent with friends and lower exposure to offending peers (Warr, 1998) and peer network.
But desistance can also occur as part of a group process where friends mutually support
each other’s desistance (Weaver, 2015), and particular peers, such as ‘best friends’, can
be especially relevant in understanding desistance during adolescence, because ‘adoles-
cents attempt to achieve delinquency “balance” with their best friend by changing behav-
iour, net of raw peer deviance levels’ (McGloin, 2009: 440; see also Weerman and
Smeenk, 2005).
Finally, the role of weak ties has received less attention in desistance literature, pos-
sibly because, following Hirschi (1969) and Sampson and Laub (1993), desistance has
been associated with the presence of strong ties that exercise informal social control.
However, a competing rationale is that the contact with weak ties may provide access to
instrumental support and new legitimate resources not found in strong ties (Granovetter,
1983). For instance, previous works show that being supported by weak kinship ties may
have a protective effect on recidivism (Duwe and Clark, 2013; Martí and Cid, 2015);
acquaintances can be critical as a means to access contractual work (Weaver, 2015) and
professionals from the juvenile justice system may promote cognitive transformation
and also be bridges to legitimate resources, such as jobs, educational institutions or sup-
port organizations (Farrall, 2002; Farrall et al., 2014).
Beyond the relevance of interpersonal relationships in desistance pointed out by the
aforementioned contributions, a key point remains controversial: whether desistance is
produced ‘by default’ as a consequence of objective changes in relationships (Laub and
Sampson, 2003: 278), or whether it is related to agency, particularly to some sort of sub-
jective change that motivates a person to seek new social ties or to redefine extant ones
(Barry, 2010; Giordano et al., 2002; Mulvey et al., 2004). Within the latter approach, the
concept of ‘hooks for change’ (Giordano et al., 2002) is especially relevant: ‘hooks for
change’ can be understood as resources available within one’s personal network that the
individual selects and mobilizes with the aim of supporting a desistance process initiated
by a cognitive transformation. With this approach, a key issue is to analyse the meaning
and the importance that individuals attribute to these resources in their narratives of
desistance (Maruna, 2001).
Networks as a constraint for desistance in disadvantaged
youth
Network opportunities for change are not equally distributed across the youth popula-
tion: whereas many youths have access to the aforementioned relational resources, such
as supportive parents, a normative peer group or weak ties useful for job seeking when
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European Journal of Criminology 18(2)
addressing their transition to adulthood, the composition and structure of personal net-
works may constrain this access. The latter may especially be the case among...
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