Locked out, locked in: Young people, adulthood and desistance from crime

This thesis presents findings from a longitudinal study of young people living in poverty providing a unique insight into their lives. The research set out to explore three themes, namely how young people end contact successfully (or not) from support, their experiences of the ‘transition to adulthood’ and also what triggered, helped and hindered those who were trying to desist from offending. It was revealed that a small number never left Includem’s Transitional Support, a unique service set up in Scotland providing emotional and practical help for vulnerable young people in this age group. For those who did leave, many had limited to no other support in their lives and were reluctant to ask for help again even when they were in real need. They were all acutely aware of their precarious situation. ‘Adulthood’ denoted certainty for them and was not viewed as a feasible destination. Members of the group dealt with this differently. Almost all retained hope of achieving their goals and in doing so suffered a form of ‘cruel optimism’, conversely, a smaller number scaled back on their aspirations, sometimes even to the extent of focusing on their immediate day to day survival. Over the course of the study most participants became more hopeless, isolated and withdrawn. Although they still wanted to achieve their original ambitions of having a job, own place and being settled this appeared less likely over time. A key finding from this study is that those who managed least had accepted the idea that independence was about ‘going it alone’ and proving oneself by oneself, but on the other hand, those who coped better viewed independence as being interdependence and welcomed help from others. It emerged that those who had offended had done so to achieve a sense of belonging, rejected by home and education. By desisting they moved from having some element of status and respect to then living a legitimate but often impoverished existence overshadowed by their past. This study opens up a series of questions about the pains of desistance and the pains of poverty. It is suggested that considering desistance and adulthood in terms of citizenship would emphasise the individual’s and societies interdependence so that rights, responsibilities and potential are recognised. At present, I argue that there is a mutual dismissal. Society dismisses impoverished youth and they in turn do not see that society holds anything for them. I call for renewed hope so that inaction and continued poverty and inequality are not rendered inevitable, and for criminologists to also embrace the idea of interdependence so that this issue is dealt with beyond the parameters of this field

Developing and Designing the Women's Centres : Sharing the Learning from the Development Phase

The Robertson Trust provided funding and support for the introduction and development of two asset - based and community - led Women’s Centres focused on meeting the needs and aspirations of women and girls including those who are most vulnerable. This research was commissioned to: 1) explore the effectiveness of the approach taken during the development and design phases of the Centres initiated by The Robertson Trust; 2) share learning throughout the evaluation process to inform future work in this area for the Trust, those involved in the programme and other interested organisations. As part of this, The Robertson Trust is contributing to the evidence-base about what works, what doesn’t work and why in developing a community led approach to the design and development of community - led Women’s Centres and to use that learning to help inform and improve local and national policy and shape future service delivery in this context. This project, designed to document and analyse the process and inform that learning, commenced in May 2015 and concluded in February 2017. Here we provide a summary of the learning from this project with the intention to inform the early stages of development of any further or related project of this nature

The pains of desistance

Desistance is generally presented in a positive light, with themes of ‘making good’ and generativity recurring in the literature. This article reports on two qualitative studies exploring the desistance journeys of two different groups of ex-offenders, drawing attention to the pains of this process. It examines the possible consequences of these ‘pains of desistance’ and how they are linked to three spheres of desistance: act-desistance; identity desistance; and relational desistance. The attempt to achieve act-desistance often led to the pain of isolation for our interviewees, while the clash between the need to achieve identity desistance and a lack of relational desistance (especially on the meso- and macro-levels) meant that they suffered the pain of goal failure. The pains of isolation and goal failure combined to lead to the further pain of hopelessness. Those interviewed were indeed ‘going straight’, but taking this path led many to a limited and often diminished life

Young people and desistance

No abstract available

Young people and desistance

No abstract available

Not just a 'youth problem':LGBT+ experiences of homelessness across the life course in Fife, Scotland

While it is widely recognised that LGBT+ people are over-represented in the homeless population, research on their circumstances and experiences is limited. Scotland has a well-deserved reputation for progressive homeless legislation, yet in policy documents LGBT+ people are barely mentioned. This paper presents the results of a study in Fife, the third largest Local Authority in Scotland, focusing on 14 in-depth interviews with LGBT+ people from across age groups who had experience of or been at risk of homelessness. The findings bring to the fore that rejection by family and partners for ‘coming out’ is common to all age groups and not just a youth problem, and is a unique reason for LGBT+ people becoming or being at risk of homelessness. The research highlights the complexity of LGBT+ life courses, with fluidity and confusion around gender identity colluding with poverty and rurality to exacerbate the experience of homelessness. This paper calls for data collection in this area so that the extent of the problem no longer remains unknown and easily ignored and more inclusive dialogue between policy makers and those affected by policy, a message which needs to resonate beyond this field and indeed beyond Scotland