Learn About International Perspectives and Lessons Learned on Desistance from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ).
This month, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) released a white paper that shares successful international interventions that have been initiated to foster desistance. Since the mid-1990s, there have been regularly sustained research efforts to expand global knowledge of why people stop offending, which have been instrumental for increased awareness of desistance causes. However, a critical gap remains of practical strategies for implementation in crime-prevention practices and sentencing procedures within the criminal justice system. This paper shares how desistance has been defined and operationalized in other nations, reviews research-informed conditions associated with desistance, critiques unsuccessful desistance-promoting initiatives, and then closes with successful recommendations for proposals, policies, and practices for increased rates in the United States.