A multi-cultural comparative study into the influence national level variations have on desistance from crime

通过对参与刑事司法干预的参与者的定性访谈，在交换之前在加拿大和苏格兰收集，该项目将探讨国家层面的特征和过程影响个人停止犯罪的能力。近年来，对犯罪抑制的研究-探索人们如何以及为什么长期抑制犯罪行为-在学术界和政策上都得到了越来越多的关注。最值得注意的是，在一些国际环境中，人们日益认识到并将抵制研究列为优先事项，这影响了政治战略、机构目的和目标以及刑事司法实践。尽管了解抵抗途径日益重要；在检验国家层面的差异对国家之间个人再犯可能性的影响的实证研究中，仍然存在很大的差距。事实上，许多重要的单一文化研究有助于对持久性的了解，从而可以跨国家进行二次分析。然而，由于若干原因，不能得出直接的国际比较结论。例如，研究人员将不可避免地设计不同的研究问题、抽样标准和分析策略。因此，对国家层面差异对停止过程的作用的严格比较仍然相对未知。这个项目将比较一些国家层面的因素，以检查它们是否影响了对犯罪的抵制过程。建议的因素是：国家特征（如人口规模和监禁率）不同社会机构（包括社会工作和教育）、文化和宗教信仰、经济制度（例如，提供国家福利支持和有条件的福利制度）的参与和优先次序。这项研究不会简单地问“为什么人们停止犯罪？”而是批判性地询问国家层面的特征和进程、社会制度、文化和宗教信仰以及经济体系是如何影响苏格兰和qu忧郁的。在此过程中，本项目将确定哪些干预措施和更广泛的社会、文化和经济进程最显著地影响抵制行为，从而在理论上探索人们如何以及为什么停止冒犯行为时开始考虑国家差异。在方法上，本研究将生成两个数据集的比较概况，以便在国家层面上比较一些结果，包括：克服的障碍，任何再次犯罪，犯罪的降级和/或加速，停止的愿望，以及客观和主观幸福感的总体改善。由于在数据收集阶段将向加拿大和苏格兰参与者提出相同的访谈问题，因此将有可能进行严格的比较分析。此外，分析还将检查国家层面的比较，包括每个群体的社会和个人情况、他们对时间和空间的利用、对公民身份和包容的感受、“自我”的形成以及耻辱和受害的经历。将这两个阶段的分析结合起来，将使个人和社会因素的相互作用以及它们对参与者停止犯罪能力的影响得到检验。最后，这个项目的一个关键要素是将这项国际研究的发现写进两篇期刊文章。为了最大限度地发挥这些产出的影响，这两篇论文将侧重于阻力的两个不同方面：个人层面的因素和结构层面的变量。此外，该项目的传播计划还包括在研究小组会议和学术会议上发表演讲，以及为苏格兰和qusamubec的教学单元制作讲座。

NERC: Jessica Cleary: ES/P000681/1Using qualitative interviews with participants involved in criminal justice interventions, collected in Québec (Canada) and Scotland prior to the exchange, this project will explore what national level characteristics and processes impact individual's ability to stop offending. Research into criminal desistance - the exploration of how and why people refrain from criminal behaviour long term - has gained increasing attention both in academia and policy in recent years. Most notably, in some international contexts the growing awareness and prioritisation of desistance research has influenced political strategies, institutional aims and objectives, and criminal justice practices. Despite the growing importance of understanding pathways to desistance; there remains a significant gap in empirical research examining the impact national-level variations have on individual's likelihood of reoffending between countries. Indeed, many significant mono-cultural studies have contributed to knowledge on desistance which allows secondary analysis across nations. However, direct international comparisons cannot conclusively be drawn for a number of reasons. For example, researchers will have inevitably designed different research questions, sampling criteria and analysis strategies. Therefore, a rigorous comparison of the role national-level variances contribute to the processes of desistance remains relatively unknown.This project, will compare a number of nation level factors to examine whether they shape processes of desistance from crime. The proposed factors are:national characteristics (such as, population size and imprisonment rates)involvement and prioritisation of different societal institutions (including, social work and education)cultural and religious beliefs economic systems (for instance, provision of national welfare support and conditional benefit systems) This study will not simply ask 'why do people stop offending?' but rather critically interrogate how national level characteristics and processes, societal institutions, cultural and religious beliefs and economic systems impact desistance in Scotland and Québec. In doing so, this project will identify which interventions and wider social, cultural and economic processes most markedly influence desistance in such a way that national variations will begin to be accounted for in theoretical explorations of how and why people stop offending.Methodologically this study will generate comparative profiles of the two datasets to allow a number of outcomes to be compared at a national level including: obstacles overcome, any re-offending, de-escalation and/or acceleration in offending, desires to desist, and general improvement in objective and subjective well-being. Rigorous comparative analysis will be possible since the same interview questions will have be asked to both the Canadian and Scottish participants during the data collection phases. Additionally, analyses will also examine country-level comparisons regarding each cohort's social and personal circumstances, their usage of time and space, feelings about citizenship and inclusion, formations of 'self', and experiences of stigma and victimisation. To combination of both theses stages of analysis will enable both the interplay of personal and societal factors and their influence on the participant's ability to stop offending to be examined. Finally, a crucial element of this project will be to write up the findings from this international study into two journal articles. To maximise the impact of these outputs the two papers will focus on two distinct aspects of desistance: individual-level factors and structural-level variables. Additionally, the dissemination plan for this project also includes presentations at research group meetings and academic conferences, as well as producing lectures for teaching modules in both Scotland and Québec.