The gendered weight of desistance and understanding the ‘love of a good woman’: Desistance emotional work (DEW)
| Published date | 01 September 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/02645505221118084 |
| Author | Lauren Hall,Lyndsey Harris |
| Date | 01 September 2023 |
The gendered weight
of desistance and
understanding the ‘love
of a good woman’:
Desistance emotional
work (DEW)
Lauren Halland Lyndsey Harris
University of Lincoln, UK
Abstract
Despite increasing academic focus on intimate relationships as positive influences on
desistance, research has yet to examine the experience and impact of support provi-
sion for women who are intimate partners of desisters. This exploratory study draws
on six in-depth interviews with partners of desisters to elucidate their experiences of
support provision and the impact of desistance. This paper finds that women provide
resources to their desisting partners, and that identities and agency can be strained
through this provision. The desistance process entails an investment of emotional
work and capital from intimate partners which is conceptualised in this paper as
Desistance Emotional Work (DEW). Desistance research has not yet acknowledged
the support needs of women who invest in their partner’s desistance, and so DEW
should be considered further both theoretically and in policy and practice.
Keywords
desistance, women, relationships, support, emotional work
The gendered weight of desistance
Desistance from crime is a theoretical framework, which promotes an understanding
of the ways in which people leave behind lives characterised by offending (Best
Corresponding Author:
Lauren Hall, School of Social and Political Studies, University of Lincoln, Brayford Way, Brayford Pool,
Lincoln, LN6 7TS, UK.
Email: LaHall@lincoln.ac.uk
Article The Journal of Communit
y
and Criminal Justice
Probation Journal
2023, Vol. 70(3) 224–241
© The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/02645505221118084
journals.sagepub.com/home/prb
et al., 2020). Desistance is usually considered to begin at the end of a period of
involvement in offending and has been divided into three stages: primary desistance
is defined as a short-term crime-free period; secondary desistance is presented as a
more permanent move away from involvement in criminal activity including internal
identity shifts (Maruna and Farrall, 2004); and tertiary desistance as complete
social immersion and acceptance in the community (McNeill, 2014). Desistance
has also been described as a journey towards social inclusion, achieved when a
person with an offending history has developed and (has had accepted by others)
a positive sense of identity, healthy social relations, and stable accommodation
and employment (Farrall et al., 2010; Healy, 2012; Weaver, 2016). Debates con-
cerning its application, its measurement and its parameters continue, but overall
desistance is most helpfully regarded as a hopeful process, which promotes positive
outcomes for individuals, communities and, somewhat more cynically, the State. In
practice, desistance is best supported through strengths-based mechanisms: through
creating scaffolding for positive relationships, job opportunities, and by enhancing
existing skills and strengths to foster the pro-social resources needed to live a crime-
free life (Best and Colman, 2020).
Whilst several factors have been identified as influential to desistance, the cap-
acity for social relations to influence the process has received particular attention.
A considerable proportion of the desistance literature identifies strong relationships
and social bonds as paramount to successful reintegration and desistance (Nielsen,
2018; Nugent and Schinkel, 2016; Sampson and Laub, 1993; Weaver, 2014).
Research has acknowledged the fundamental influence of intimate relationships
on the desistance process. Laub et al’s. (1998) noteworthy research examining
the influence of marriage on offending trajectories argued that as social bonds
are built over time, so is desistance. Sampson and Laub (1993) originally proposed
this approach in their age-graded theory of informal social control, which, building
on Hirschi’s (1969) social bonding theory, supported the notion that the formation of
strong attachments by men to institutions of social control was identified as capable
of playing a significant role in their movement away from crime.
In its male-centred development, desistance has been centred on heteronormative
perspectives, consequently overlooking many women in the process. Although
women’s desistance has been more recently considered (Rutter and Barr, 2021),
most women who are affected by desistance are not experiencing desistance them-
selves but are still proximate to the experience through supporting their partner’s
process. This brings unique challenges. Although relationships have been estab-
lished as important to desistance for both men and women (Bersani et al., 2009),
the risks of male desistance-lapse for women are pertinent (Barr, 2019). For
women who are vulnerable or disadvantaged, intimate relationships with men
who have offending/addiction histories can sometimes trigger offending/addiction
problems in the women themselves (Laub and Sampson, 2003: 46). Research has
also identified that men are protected against addiction relapse by marriage,
whereas the opposite is true for women (Walitzer and Dearing, 2006). Women
whose partners do not desist may be exposed to risks concerning influence on
their own substance use/offending behaviours. For women with offending histories,
Hall and Harris225
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