Social Capital Theory into Practice: Desistance

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Social Capital Theory into PracticeDesistance
What makes a difference?

• Fergus McNeill
• Professor of Criminology Social Work
• Universities of Glasgow
• F.McNeill_at_lbss.gla.ac.uk

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Understanding social capital

• Social capital is about networks, opportunities,
  relationships, shared norms, mutual expectations,
  community cohesion.
• Bonding social capital (horizontal) denotes ties
  between people in similar circumstances
  (families, close friends, neighbours). Strong
  ties (homophily), serving expressive purposes.
• Bridging social capital (horizontal) includes
  more distant ties (loose friendships and
  workmates). Weak ties (heterophily), serving
  instrumental purposes.
• Linking social capital (vertical) connects to
  unlike people in dissimilar situations, enabling
  access to a much wider range of resources,
  external to the community. Serving instrumental
  purposes?

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Understanding desistance 1

• Primary and secondary desistance
• Contested concepts, but when it comes to
  persistent offenders, secondary desistance is (or
  should be) the holy grail of offender
  management
• Desistance is a process characterised by
  ambivalence and vacillation. It is not an event.
• Desistance may be provoked by aging, by related
  life events and by developing social bonds,
  depending on the meaning of those events and
  bonds for the offender.
• Desistance may be provoked by someone believing
  in the offender. Hope seems to be an important
  factor.

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Understanding desistance 2

• To some extent, desistance may involve
  discovering (or developing) agency the ability
  to make choices and govern ones own life.
  Persistent offenders tend to be fatalistic.
• Different forms of capital are significant in the
  desistance process. Desistance probably requires
  more than just the development of human capital
  (capacities) social capital is also critical to
  the process.
• E.g. the role of parents in desistance amongst
  young men
• For some desisters, desistance is about
  redemption or restoration it often involves
  finding purpose through generative activities
  but this may relate to their age and their stage
  in the change process. It is not clear whether
  generativity prompts or confirms desisting
  identities or both

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Social capital, offending and desistance

• Webster et al. (2006)
• Socio-economic decline and embedded disadvantage
  Neighbourhoods with bonding social capital -
  tends to mean close ties but limited mobilities
• Repeat offenders Diminishing and disrupted
  capital and problematic networks that frustrate
  desistance
• Barry (2006)
• Offending and desistance are an age-related
  process of transition childhood onset, youth
  maintenance, adult desistance
• Related to ability to accumulate and expend
  capital
• The elongated transitions typical of
  late-modern, post-industrial societies may
  frustrate desistance

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Implications 1 Families

• Families (of origin) Bonding capital
• Home visits and family work
• Rebuild and renew positive bonds and therefore
  access the resources of bonding social capital
• BUT the suitability of this strategy depends on
  the age and stage of the offender, and the nature
  of the family and its dynamics
• Families (of formation) Bonding and bridging?
• The significance of generativity suggests a
  productive focus for work around new and
  developing relationships, parenting (and
  preparation for it), other potential generative
  activities, including civic volunteering
• Such work may help (ex-)offenders to build new
  bonding social capital and to develop new
  bridging social capital, via new relationships
  and associations related to generative activities

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Implications 2 Community Development

• Resettlement agencies need to engage communities
  in order to
• Prepare (ex-) offenders for and assist them in
  accessing wider social networks, including
  through employment (bridging)
• Prepare communities (including employers and
  other agencies) for (ex-) offenders and support
  them in working with (ex-) offenders
• This mediation and advocacy is necessary in order
  to facilitate the development of bridging social
  capital within communities and in the development
  of linking capital across social groups and
  social hierarchies

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Implications 3 Public attitudes

• Developing the social capital of a vilified group
  is not easy in insecure, late-modern societies,
  but cf.
• Re-assurance policing, signal crimes and control
  signals (Innes, 2004)
• Links between control signals and
  non-punitiveness (Bottoms and Wilson, 2004)
• So, what are the prospects for sending
• Control/Protection signals
• Restitution/Reparation signals
• Reformation/Redemption signals
• The success of such signals may have major
  consequences for the capacity of resettlement
  systems to generate wider opportunities for the
  development of social capital, in support of
  reduced re-offending

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Rethinking supervision

• Interventions need to take account of
• Identity and diversity in the process
• Motivation, hope and ambivalence (affects)
• The relational contexts of change (personal and
  professional)
• Strengths and resources for overcoming obstacles
  to desistance (as well as risks and needs)
• The development of an agentic identity
• Social capital (as well as human capital)

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Embedding interventions
Community
Desistance
Supervision
Programmes
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A counsellor who helps to develop and deploy
motivation
A supervisor who holds it all together
Motivation
Opportunities
Capacities (Skills)
An advocate who helps to develop and deploy
social capital
An educator who helps to develop and deploy
human capital
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For more detail

• McNeill, F. (2009) Towards Effective Practice in
  Offender Supervision, available at
  www.sccjr.ac.uk
• McNeill, F. and Whyte, B. (2007) Reducing
  Reoffending Social Work and Community Justice in
  Scotland. Cullompton Willan
• Weaver, B. and McNeill, F. (2007) Giving Up
  Crime Directions for Policy, available at
  http//www.scccj.org.uk/SCCCJpublicationspage.htm