Criminology has pursued a long-standing interest in crime causation and what leads individuals into committing crime. It is striking, though, considering the extent to which state machineries are marshalled into efforts to control and reduce crime, that criminologists have only relatively recently turned their attention to the question of what prompts offenders to cease criminal activity and how they do so. Consequently, and perhaps making up for lost time, the past two decades have seen a proliferation of literature exploring the psychosocial processes of change. Recent research has also opened questions about the impact of social contexts and criminal justice interventions on desistance from crime, examining the way that individuals transform aspects of identity and social relationships as they move away from offending (for example, King, 2014, Farrall and Calverley, 2006; Farrall et al, 2014).

This book extends explorations in one critical theme in the debates around desistance – the transformation of identity and, in particular, the internal narratives that constitute a sense of self. We present fresh research on the processes of change for individuals seeking healthier and more successful futures, and propose that debates should be widened to consider past lives of substance misuse and victimisation.

Of course, there are classic large-scale studies cited frequently throughout the desistance literature, including Shover (1996), Sampson and Laub (1993; also Laub and Sampson, 2003) and, more recently, the Sheffield Pathways Out of Crime research conducted by Anthony Bottoms and Joanna Shapland. Their longitudinal design, sample sizes and methodological rigour ensure that their messages carry weight and authority (see Farrall et al (2014) for an overview). That does not mean, however, that they are the last word on desistance. The smaller studies discussed here are able to examine specific interests which larger studies have left aside. With the exception of Giordano et al (2002), women, for example, are relatively neglected within desistance studies as are the experiences of individuals from black and minority ethnic groups. Furthermore, our qualitative studies have set out to reach, as it were, some of the parts that larger studies cannot reach in terms of subjective experiences of change and the role of emotions (although, again, here, Giordano et al (2007) provide an isolated example).