Introduction to the Special Issue: Empirical Investigations of Strengths and Desistance from Criminal Offending

• Author: Calvin M. Langton
• DOI: 10.1177/0093854820964822
• Published date: 01 November 2020
• Date: 01 November 2020
• Subject Matter: Editorial

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, 2020, Vol. 47, No. 11, November 2020, 1343 –1347.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854820964822

Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions

© 2020 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology

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INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE

Empirical Investigations of Strengths and

Desistance from Criminal Offending

CALVIN M. LANGTON

University of Windsor, Canada

This special issue on empirical investigations of strengths and desistance from criminal

offending, consists of 11 articles - eight quantitative and three qualitative investiga-

tions. The first four studies, all quantitative, are focused on desistance in adolescence. In the

fifth contribution, findings are reported for both adolescent and adult samples, making it a

transition point in the issue. The focus of the six articles that follow is on desistance in

adulthood. Two core features of the literature can be seen. The first, which serves as a segue

to comments on the three qualitative studies, concerns the two broad approaches to desis-

tance from crime into which the research can be categorized. The second feature is the

range of effects that strengths can be shown to have, about which some thoughts are offered

in the concluding comments of this introduction.

The first feature of the literature is the operationalization of desistance, in broad terms,

as either a dichotomous variable (an event or absence of an event; as it relates to this

special issue, a new criminal offense or no new criminal offense at follow-up for an indi-

vidual member of a group, all of whom, by virtue of inclusion in the group, have at least

one known criminal offense) or as a process by which the individual’s desistance from

criminal involvement unfolds over time (Bushway et al., 2001; Kazemian, 2016; Maruna,

2001). The articles in this special issue by Kelly and Ward, Vidal et al., and Avieli repre-

sent qualitative approaches aligned with the process perspective. Kelly and Ward’s (this

issue) article, intended to add to the literature on gang disengagement in the US and

authoritative work by Carson, Decker, Pyrooz, Rosen, and others introduces a resilience

framework (Masten, 2016) to this area. They conducted a thematic narrative analysis with

AUTHOR’S NOTE: The author would like to thank Robert Morgan, Editor-in-Chief of this journal, for the

opportunity to guest edit this special issue and for his input, and that of his editorial staff, throughout the pro-

cess. As guest editor, the author would like to thank the contributors, the many additional researchers who also

submitted their work for consideration, and the reviewers who, of course, played a significant role in determin-

ing the final set of articles included. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Calvin M.

Langton, Department of Psychology, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, Windsor, ON N9B 3P4,

Canada; e-mail: clangton@uwindsor.ca.

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