Desistance from Crime Over the Life Course, South Carolina, 2005-2017

Between 2004 and 2005, 479 individuals (345 men, 79 boys, and 55 women) were enrolled and interviewed as South Carolina participants in the multi-site evaluation of the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI). All initial, Wave 1, interviews were conducted in prison or juvenile detention facilities about 30 days prior to release. Subsequently, 3 follow-up waves of interviews were conducted at 3, 9, and 15 months following the original release in the community or, for those reincarcerated, in prison or jail. These interview data were supplemented with arrest and prison incarceration data collected from state agencies. For the current study, a new interview instrument was developed that included modules from the original evaluation, new modules that focused on factors linked to emerging theories of desisting behavior, and a life event calendar to capture details of their experiences between their original release from prison (2004 or 2005) and the date of the interview. The instrument covered a number of domains over the life event calendar period, including basic demographic information, education, attitudes (e.g., legal cynicism), receipt of programs and services, family (marriage, children, and intimate relationships), physical and mental health, criminal identity, peers, social support, location and living arrangements, employment and income, leisure activities, stressful life events, substance use, and avoided and committed criminal behavior. Although most items had closed responses, several were open-ended. Interviews were conducted by experienced and trained field interviewers using laptop computers. The field interviewer read a series of questions from the laptop screen and entered the respondent's answers. For some questions, individual responses were audio recorded for subsequent transcription. Administrative arrest data through December 31, 2015 were obtained from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.