This book provides the most current thinking on effective interventions in the lives of criminal offenders. Original articles by leading criminologists provide in-depth analyses of "turning points" in the desistance process experienced by criminal offenders. An understanding of the sources of turning points (or interventions) across the life course is vital to assessing their impact on criminal behavior. Three sources of interventions in criminal careers are identified in the literature: structural location, human agency and situated choice. Structural location refers to the social place occupied by an individual in the social structure: including marital and occupational status, education and income, and so on. Human agency means the active will of an individual to change his or her behavior, that is, the decision to stop engaging in criminal activities. In addition, situated choice coordinates the offender's willingness to end a life of crime with the social structural supports that increase the odds of criminal desistance.

¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿Part 1: Structural Location.- Marriage as an Interventionacross the Life Course.- Patterns of Unemployment and Desistance from Crime.Part 2: Situational Context.- Criminal Victimization and Criminal Desistance.Intervetions in Gang-Related Criminal Activity.- Interventions among Ex-Convicts.Part 3: Human Agency.- Identity Theory and Criminal Desistance.- CognitiveTransformation and Changes in Criminal Behavior.- The Internal Narrative ofDesistance.- Part 4: Cross-Cultural Interventions.- Cross-Cultural Perspectiveson Criminal Interventions.- The Effectiveness of Marriage as an Intervention inthe Netherlands.- Work and Criminal Desistance in a Nordic Welfare State.Epilogue: Policy Implications and Research Recommendations.¿