Desistance From Crimes

The Role of Employment

Luk Tzu Wei

Student Name: Luk Tzu Wei, Bryan

SID: 53256234
Major: Criminology
Year: 4
Course: Advanced Criminological Theory
Words Count: 2578

Desistance From Crimes: The Role of Marriage and Employment

Content:

Introduction

p.3

Desistance

p.4

Employment

p.6

Limitations and Omissions

p.9

Discussion and Conclusion

p.11

Reference

p.13

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Desistance From Crimes: The Role of Marriage and Employment

1. Introduction
The question of how to help the ex-offender not to become recidivist is the major
concern for every criminal justice system in the world. The more economic developed
countries have adopted different type of rehabilitation program to help the exoffender(s) not to commit crime. Like in the United States, the correctional system
still heavily bases on the deterrence effect to warn the potential and ex-offender(s)
not to commit any crime in their jurisdiction. One of the notable policies is the socalled Three-strikes Law that aims to deter the ex-offender(s) from recidivism, since
the law provides legal ground for the courts to impose harsher sentences on those exoffender(s) who has previously convicted of two prior felony, and they would face a
much longer imprisonment in their third conviction. However, its effectiveness is very
doubtful due to fact stated below.
In U.S., the prison population in total reaches to 2.2 millions in 2016 where
the incarceration rate is 693 people for every 100,000 people. Sarcastically, the
number is even higher than the world most populated country China which has only
1.6 millions prisoners out of 1.3 billions of people where the incarceration rate is
much lower 118 out of 100,000 people (Walmsley, 2016). Hence the recidivism rate
in U.S. still remains in a very high level where in fact about two-thirds (67.8%) of
released prisoners were rearrested within three years of release; the percentage
reaches to 76.6% if counting as five years of release (Office of Justice Program,
2014), which suggesting that there is a deep problem in its correctional system. In
contrast, the situation is Norway is extremely different from the U.S., where it has one
of the lowest recidivism rates in the world around 20% (Bureau of Diplomatic
Security, 2014).

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Desistance From Crimes: The Role of Marriage and Employment

According to those prima facie facts, we could safely assume that Norways
criminal justice system is doing on the right track, and in reality the Norway system
provides a large number of recreational, entertainment, education and works training
courses for the inmates to support them back to the society. As mentioned by Sterben
(2014) Like many prisons, Halden seeks to prepare inmates for life on the outside
[] : woodworking, assembly workshops, even a recording studio. The Clinks a
national supporting voluntary organisations based in the United Kingdom that work
with offenders and their families also strongly emphasizes the importance of the
role of employment, and it continue actively developing and organizing job training
and seeking platforms for the ex-offender(s) so as to help them to re-integrate back to
the society.
In that case, it seems the factor of employment does play a large role in the
desistance from crime. Therefore, the article would firstly identity what is desistance,
then secondly explain how the employment would influence the ex-offenders
desisting from future criminal activities through detail studies of their characteristics
with the supplement of a number of case studies.
2. Desistance
Studying the desistence from crime is just like studying the Pandora box, which can
be involved a large number of different explanations from several of sociological and
psychological theories. Hence historically, the criminal justice system still plays a
large role in deterring the offender(s) from engaging any illegal activity by providing
the punishment of incapacitation against them. As a certain aim of the justice system
is to reduce crime and re-offending, thus the topic of desistance has become an
increasingly popular topic in the field of social science and criminology.

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Desistance From Crimes: The Role of Marriage and Employment

When discussing the topic of desistance, although the theoretical

understandings of desistance have developed over the last 40 years and few studies
have offered an operational interpretation for desistance, there is still no universal
acceptable definition due to the measurement and interpretation issues (Sampson &
Laub, 2001; Hearn, 2010; Piquero and Sullivan, 2016), and but its state of knowledge
is still relatively limited and in certain extend disorganized (Kazemian, 2009).
Uggen & Massoglia (2003) has once mentioned it is difficult to draw empirical
generalizations from the growing literature on desistance from crime. Fortunately,
studies still have shared the common understanding of absence of criminal
behaviour as the core element of desistance, and agree that desistance is a life
continual process more than a solely event (McNeil and Weaver, 2010). In that case,
for the sake of avoiding any confusion, the essay cites Shovers (1996; p. 121)
definition, which is voluntary termination of serious criminal participation.
In general, there are two type of desistance, which is respectively (1) primary
desistance the first level of absence of offending behaviour(s) whom the individuals
do not offend due to external factors (like authorities supervision) and (2) secondary
desistance a deep level of change in the person whom he has internalized the
principle of conformity, which could be reflected by his change of identity and
perception of the themselves as a non-offender (Hearn, 2010). This explanation
approach means that individuals behaviour(s) is changeable; hence the life events
occurred in ex-offenders experience could play a large role in changing their view(s)
of themselves from the label of offender to normal person. So, what makes
them to desist from criminal activities?
From the Life course theorists perspective (Laub and Sampson (1993) are the
gurus), they in general concludes that total 5 factors influencing the desistance from
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Desistance From Crimes: The Role of Marriage and Employment

crime, they are respectively (1) life course people would grow out of crime naturally
during their life (Maruna and LeBel, 2010), (2) relationships a strong supportive and
good quality bonds with family, a partner or positive peer group can provide assist
with the desistance process (Laub and Sampson, 2001), (3) employment the exoffenders would likely to get the sense of achievement and purpose during working,
(4) Faith (particularly the Christianity) becoming part of the religious community
would become the catalyst for the ex-offender desistance by providing sense of
meaning and purpose (Chui, Fun and Yap, 2015), and (5) identity and self-belief it
is the critical part of desistance process, as described by Beckers labelling theory,
offenders would suffer from the stigmatization by the society during the social
interaction process. Therefore, if the individual is able to overcome the stigma by
developing a clear sense of meaning of their lives, he would most likely to achieve the
secondary desistance level. Among those five factors, Laub and Sampson (1993)
adhered the social control theory, argued that key transitions in the informal social
control such as marriage and employment heavily influence criminal desistance in
adulthood who had committed offense during their adolescent period. Their argument
has provided a clear pathway for the future study related to desistance.
3. Employment
The relationship between desistance and employment is the hot topic in the research
realm of sociological investigation of crimes. Hence current studies are mainly
focusing on the role of employment in criminal desistance, such as concerning the
questions of how, why, when and where it works (Skardhmar and Savolainen, 2012).
But in the past, several studies had been conducted in 20 century which tried to
examine the connection between employment and desistance from crime. For
example: In 1916, Bonger had tried to study the connection between the crime rate
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Desistance From Crimes: The Role of Marriage and Employment

and the economic situation. Hence in 1980, there was a notable research named
National Supported Work Demonstration Project (NSWDP) that aimed to the
connection between employment cum social supportive program and desistance from
crime by studying the research subjects. The research subjects were being divided into
two groups (the subjects who have received supportive program (the program
participants) and the non-program participants (the control groups)) to see how
the supportive program would affect the subjects perception on employment and
desistance, and the following section would describe the research.
The research subjects were divided into four types, which were respectively
ex-addict group, ex-offender group, the youth group and the AFPD (people who were
receiving the social welfare) group. In detail, ex-addict group were from the drug
treatment program at the time of enrolment; ex-offender group were convicted for an
offence within the last 6 months with the average age of 25 years old; the youth group
were the delinquent youth who were drooped out from school with the age range of
17 20; finally the AFPD group were the oldest group with the average age of 34.
The period of the study hold for total 12 18 months, and total 15 sites around the
U.S. were used for this research.
In summary, different group had different result outcome. [AFPD group] The
AFPD group (both control group and program participants) had the longest stay in the
employment comparing with other type groups. As noted by the report, they were
willing to stay longer for little financial gains for the family even the payment was
low suggesting that the age of the individuals would naturally create individuals
conformity. The situation of ex-addict group was slightly different from the AFPD
group. [Ex-addict group] The program participants involved less criminal activities
while comparing to the control group, hence in fact the control group tend to revert to
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Desistance From Crimes: The Role of Marriage and Employment

crime to buy drugs for personal use suggesting that the ex-addicts, apart from
employment per se, required more social supports and assistances (social bonding) in
order to keep them away from crimes. [Ex-offender Group] Surprisingly, exoffender group in general had the lowest stay in the supportive program with only 5.2
months, and both the program participants and control group, did not see any
reduction criminal behaviour. [The Youth Group] Youth group, as noted by the
report, involved too much uncertainties in the aspect of job and interests, thus they
tended to seek short-term benefits and experience and to quit both the supportive
program and employment suggesting that employment and supportive program did
not help the adolescents in the desistance from crime.
In the nutshell, the result gave a clear message that employment did play the
role of desistance in the group of older generations, but other factors like social
bonding with family, ages, the social assistances from authority could also affect the
employment effectivenesss in the individuals desistance process.
Later on, Farrington et al. (1986) noticed there were empirical studies showing
that the episodes of unemployment would lead to higher crime rates. In 1993, after
nearly a century of studies of desistance, Laub and Sampson (1993) summarized the
studies and had firstly provided a theoretical explanation and interpretation of the
theory of desistance, which was heavily based on the Glueeck and Gluecks (1960)
research., Laub and Sampson created the model that the timing (ageing) and quality of
marriage and employment could led to preventive effect, and the childhood and
juvenile characteristics were not able to predict the patterns of future offending and
couldnt explain desistance, and the reasons why employment would help the
individual to desist from crime is because it could provide positive informal social
bonding (also referred to as social capital) to the individuals so as to re-socializing
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Desistance From Crimes: The Role of Marriage and Employment

him with the positive values and norms in his own experience of conformity. They
further explained that social bonds in adulthood especially attachment to the labour
force and cohesive marriage explained criminal behaviour independent of prior
differences in criminal propensity (p. 19). Simply speaking, they believe the marriage
and employment, acting as the key institution of social control in the transition to
adulthood, could be considered as the major life course turning points for men who
has desisted from crime, and this turning point has no difference between races.
But, it is still noteworthy that when studying employment and desistance, the
researchers shall also notes the importance of the job quality, such as the job nature
(full time or part time), working period, workloads, the quality of work per se
(boredom or excitement), the working environment (social ties with colleagues) etc..
Their hypothesis is still being used and tested by different studies in different
regions. For instances, Hughes, Bellamy & Black (1998) had used a sample of inner
city males in several American cities and found out that stable employment is an
important factor in the desistance of the sample group; Benda, Harm and Toombss
(2005) research also found out that full-time employment and supportive relations with
others (family, friends and colleague) is associated with a lower likelihood of
recidivism, by studying 572 male and 120 female graduates of a correctional camp.
Bahr et al. (2010), after studying 51 parolees during the 3 years of their release from
prison, found out that having a good quality of employment helps them to re-integrate
back to the society and succeed in their attempt to stay off drugs after release. When
current studies seem have provided a positive feedback to the turning point of
employment, there are studies providing an opposite picture.
4. Limitations and Omission:

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Desistance From Crimes: The Role of Marriage and Employment

Every theory has its own limitation and omission, and classic life course theory is no
exception. Historically, there were studies providing a different argument against it.
Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990) dissented the life events (marriage, child-rearing and
employment) make very little difference to criminality, since their theory emphasized
the child-hood experience developed and form the individuals criminality.
Moreoever, Maruna (2001) also counter employment was not a factor in the
desistance process, as there were only five of thirty desisting offenders were
employed in full time in Liverpool. In addition, employment does not always promote
desistance, but in fact it might provoke / induce the ex-offender(s) to re-offend again,
as it could create opportunities for motivated offender(s) to commit crime(s)
(Sviridom and Thompson, 1983).
Apart from those counter arguments, if having a careful examination on Laub
& Sampsons theory, I believe that the life course theory has the major weakness or
omissions which is related to heterogeneity, as the sample of Laub and Sampson was
heavily based on the race of white. For example, in the U.S., the population is
consisted by different type of races and ethnicities (White, Asian, African, Hispanics
etc..) which each of them have different socio-cultural and religious background, and
this limitation can create a huge challenge for the life course theory of accurately
searching for patterns of general behaviour of individual(s) in different society.
Despite Laub and Sampson had argued that the theory of turning point was raceneutral, a recent study has given a more complex picture to their claim.
Shoenmberger (2012) noted the issue of lack of research in studying the
relationship between race and desistance in the life course theory, she thus used the
data from Waves 1, 2 and 4 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health
(Add Health) to examine differences in the effect of marriage and employment on
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Desistance From Crimes: The Role of Marriage and Employment

desistance among 3,479 Black, Hispanic, and White men. Hence her result,
unfortunately, shows the classic life course theory do not significantly apply to nonwhite races (Blacks and Hispanics). In detail, only the blacks who have a job for 5
years could become a notable indicator of desistance from crime; For Hispanics,
employment is not the major indicator, but is the cohabiting union; the life course
theory did only apply very well to Whites. In other word, the result provided a more
complex picture of the de facto effects of employment in desistance, and Laub and
Sampsons argument of race netural might not be accurate.
5. Discussions and Conclusion
To conclude the abovementioned point, the article has firstly has compared the factual
situation in correctional service in U.S. and Norway to identity what kind of factors
would play a large role in helping individuals to desist from crime. The fact shows
that the Norway successful story is related to their adoption of the approach largely
related to help inmates to find job. Therefore, the article subsequently reviewed the
definition and characteristics of desistance, and finds out that desistance per se is a
very problematic word; even though researchers had a common understanding about
its nature, they still fail to create a universal acceptable definition for it. The third part
has briefly explained the development process of the study of employment and
desistance. It suggests that the role of employment did play a certain degree in the
desistance process, and the cited case study was able to prove the employment effects
in desistance, but is still affected by the factors of aging and social bonding and
supports. After almost a century of study, Laub and Sampson has theorized the life
course theory and argued that the employment is one of the turning points which
can create strong effects on the individual(s) not to commit crime. However, the
classic life theory did have some limitations, as it is noteworthy that employment
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Desistance From Crimes: The Role of Marriage and Employment

sometime would lead to re-offending because of the increasing opportunities for

commit crime(s), hence more importantly the theory was largely based on the
sample of white, which would lead to the limitation of heterogeneity that could
become its major weakness. In fact, researches have proved this point. For any future
studies related to employment, it seems researchers shall pay attention on the race and
socio-cultural context of the research subjects so as to have a more accurate and
clearer result.

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