Desistance knowledge exchange project

This project aims to support and advance an exchange of knowledge about 'desistance' (ie how and why people stop offending) between academics, policy makers, practitioners, ex-offenders, probation service users and their families or supporters.
The project also aims to explore how 'offender' supervision in the community can best support desistance, thus contributing to the effectiveness and credibility of such supervision. The co-investigators (Fergus McNeill, Steve Farrall and Shadd Maruna) and project partners (the National Offender Management Service for England and Wales (NOMS), the Probation Board for Northern Ireland (PBNI), the Community Justice Division of the Scottish Government (SGCJD) and Lagan Media (NI) Ltd.) will work together through a two phase process. Phase 1 involves the co-production of a documentary film about desistance, to be used both as a standalone resource for training and supervision and as a prompt for phase 2, which involves a series of six workshops (2 in each jurisdiction) in which the different stakeholders will discuss and debate the development of 'practice for desistance', leading to the production of an outline model of a practice framework.