Abstract

Desistance is an integral subdiscipline within criminological research that has influenced and shaped criminal justice policy and practice. Research findings provide the evidence base for developing interventions on pathways to, and processes around desistance and becoming an ex-offender (Weaver, 2019). In recent decades this area has grown exponentially, as scholars and policy makers recognise the importance of understanding the complex and intricate nature of desistance in order to effectively facilitate it. Despite progression, understandings of desistance remain entrenched by the compartmentalised and nepotistic nature of criminological theory which foregrounds ‘objective’, linear explanations of crime and desistance. These approaches focus predominantly on when desistance occurs, and in doing so overlook deeper more nuanced understandings of why and how individuals initiate and negotiate their way through the desistance journey (Hearn, 2010). Giving rise to an Deleuzo-Guattarian (1987) entry point into ongoing debates to (re)think and (re)imagine the lived realities of the desistance journey with/in/alongside (Sellers, 2015; Deleuze and Guattari, 1987) materialist and Posthuman philosophies (including Barad, 2007; 2003; Bennett, 2016; 2010; Braidotti, 2011; 2006; 2006a; 2002; St. Pierre, 2013, 2010; 2004; 1997). This research presents a posthuman-materialist framework with which to deconstruct binarized perspectives of desistance by shining an analytical spotlight on the metamorphic, fluid and interminable nature of being and becoming an ex-offender (van der Tuin and Dolphijn, 2010).