Development of the Pro-Social Identity Scale (PIDS): A new desistance measure

• In Event: Advances in quantitative methods 1

Abstract

The development of pro-social Identity (how we see ourselves in the world) has increasingly been recognised by Criminologists and policymakers as central to long-term desistance from offending (‘secondary desistance’). In England and Wales, this is inherent to the theory-of-change adopted in National Standards and case management guidance for youth justice in particular. However, researchers and practitioners have lacked a tested measure of pro-social identity, relying instead on more deficit-based measures for assessment. In this paper, we introduce a new six-point scale for measuring the pro-social/pro-offending identity axis, designed to be used in research, intervention evaluations and case assessment. We present the development and testing of the scale for use with children and young adults, and early findings from using the scale with a normative sample of young people in Britain.

Authors

• Neal Hazel, University of Salford, UK

• Chris Birkbeck, Salford University