The relational dynamics of desistance: solidarity, subsidiarity and social reciprocity

• In Event: Desistance from Crime: New Evidence and Theorising from the UK

Abstract

This paper draws on the author’s analysis of the life stories of a group of people who once co-offended to reveal the relational dynamics that enable desistance. Where these relationships contributed to their collective involvement in offending, these particular friends also supported each other, albeit to differing degrees and with different effects, to pursue constructive changes in their lifestyles. Those relationships which were most causally influential were characterised by a way of relating to each other which manifested as solidarity and subsidiarity, or in other words – a sense of ‘we-ness’. This would imply the need to create the kinds of supports, premised on the principles and practices of subsidiarity and solidarity, which can generate and sustain the kinds of assets and reflexive relational networks that reside at the heart of the desistance process. The paper concludes by discussing one such approach, drawing on the author’s involvement in developing a mutual aid based group.

Author

• Elizabeth Weaver, University of Strathclyde