Human Agency and Explanations of Criminal Desistance: Arguments for a Rational Choice Theory

Extant theoretical work on desistance from crime has emphasized social processes such as involvement in adult social bonds or pro-social relationships, with very little attention given to individual subjective processes such as one’s identity. The desistance theories of Sampson and Laub and Giordano seem to have reached the point of consensual acceptance in the field. Theoretical work within the past 5 years, however, have begun to stress the role of identity and human agency in the desistance process including Paternoster and Bushway’s (2009) identity theory of desistance (ITD), which offers a rational choice perspective on how offenders quit crime. This paper provides a critical theoretical assessment of both the age-graded informal social control theory of desistance and the theory of cognitive and emotional transformation, illuminating the critical theoretical omissions and empirical inconsistencies in each. We suggest that the apparent consensus in the criminological literature regarding desistance theory may be premature and highlight the advantages provided by theories that emphasize the internal cognitive dimensions of change including the ITD. 

Table 1

Summary of desistance theories of crime

	Sampson and Laub	Giordano	Maruna	Paternoster and Bushway
Intellectual heritage	Social control theory	Symbolic interactionism	Phenomenology	Rational choice
Main factor in desistance	Conventional social bonds and routine activities	Emotionally healthy intimate relationships new role models	Biographical reconstruction	Identity change
Role of human agency	Very little	Role for human agency at the mid-range of disadvantage	Not clear	Human agency a fundamental part of the theory
Social/structural or individualist	Social	Social	Individualist	Individualist
Identity change part of desistance?	Not required, but may come after social bonds improve	No causal role, but may come later	Identity consistency	Identity change initiates desistance
Respectability package (full-time job and marriage) required for desistance	Yes	Helpful, but not required	Helpful, but not required	Helpful, but not required

Full article at:  http://goo.gl/0jSKRl

By: 

Ray Paternoster 

, Ronet Bachman

, Shawn Bushway

, Erin Kerrison

, Daniel O’Connell

 

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