Speakers
Workshop Session
In recent years in Japan, while effectiveness research on reducing recidivism has shown what is effective in preventing recidivism, it has not been clear how correctional treatment affects desistance from crime after release. In this research, I examined how experiences in correctional institutions (juvenile training schools) are associated with the desistance from delinquency, based on overseas findings on the process of desistance from crime and offenders' self-transformation(e.g., Maruna (2001) and Giordano (2016)). Semi-structured interviews were conducted from May to July 2021 with four males aged 38 to 45 who had never been incarcerated in prison since their release from a juvenile training school, and the interview data were analyzed using a modified grounded theory approach. Analysis of interview data revealed that the process of desistance from delinquency can be divided into four stages: manifestation of delinquency, stay in juvenile training school, immediately after reintegration into society, and stabilization of a new self. It was suggested that how society and the people around the juvenile delinquent view the juvenile delinquent is decisive for their desistance from delinquency, and that to facilitate their desistance, they should make connections with the environment that can serve as hooks for change while they are still in juvenile training schools. Future challenges include conducting prospective and longitudinal studies, analyzing the process of desistance from the perspective of those around juvenile delinquents and others in society, and applying the findings to practice in correctional institutions.