Desistance in Offenders with Mental Illness

The cessation of offending has been associated, amongst other factors, with age or maturation, intimate relationships (e.g., marriage), social support, work stability, cognitive transformation, high expectations from others (i.e., the ‘Pygmalion Effect’), being able to disengage from one’s criminal past (‘knifing off’), and spirituality (for an overview see Laws and Ward, 2011). While there are many factors associated with desisting from crime, desistance is often defined by the absence rather than the presence of something. Thus, while it is most certainly something, desistance is quite difficult to define and to measure (e.g., Laws and Ward, 2011; Maruna, 2001; Walker et al., 2013b).