Citizenship

I was speaking with a colleague today (about desistance as I tend to do these day) and she highlighted the role of citizenship in desistance.

Part of my recent reading has been about the importance some researchers place on social bonds in desistance
(e.g. Sampson and Laub, 1993), whereby weakened bonds with societal goals can contribute to offending.  Therefore, suggesting that increased societal bonds and individual investment with society supports desistance.

Bruce and Hollin detailed the County Durham Citizenship intervention which, was collaborative with local services to promote social inclusion. The benefits of this could be increasing the support that an individual is in contact with, but also it could form part of building bonds with the community and therefore encourage desistance.

The idea of citizenship and having an investment in the community sounds positive.  However, many of the individuals who have histories of offending behaviour can have disadvantages of social exclusion, prejudice from others, a lack of trust in others and even a sense of hopelessness.  These could hinder developing social bonds.  Perhaps then, individuals could be supported in integrating into the communities.