Prison as a Turning Point: Looking for the Impact of Change on Change

• In Event: Analyzing ROADS Data to Explore Desistance: Health, Trauma, Transformation, and Redemption

Abstract

The imagery of prison as a “turning point” is a longstanding one and implies that change must be observed from one side of the prison term to the other. Theoretically, change in intervening factors, such as identity and social structures, should compel shifts in criminal activity. This project is a conceptual replication of a unique individual-level method for identifying change in crime (Hickert et al., 2021) using longitudinal quantitative data from the Roads to Desistance study (Bachman et al., 2013). We find that most people do not experience prison as a turning point, that is, they remain relatively stable in their level of engagement in crime. However, for those that do, more experience a significant decline in criminal activity than an increase. Mechanisms of change around the period of confinement and early reentry are explored to predict those who experience a turning point.

Author

• Audrey Hickert, University of Cincinnati