Growing out of crime? Problems, pitfalls and possibilities

Much of the desistance literature is based on samples of adult males, with some attention to young adults (notably the Sheffield Pathways Out of Crime Study led by Anthony Bottoms). Meanwhile the psychological processes of change in the youth justice population remain relatively unexplored. The empirical work that has taken place has been more concerned with young people's place in the social world and their relative lack of power and status (for example, Barry, 2006). This chapter looks in more detail at the way young people construct identity using the resources available to them, challenging adult assumptions of problems and pathology and highlighting the creativity and often the strengths that young people develop in adversity. It asks how young people look into their futures and anticipate the type of adult identity they can achieve. And it questions what happens to those young people experiencing multiple difficulties and struggling with 'problem-saturated identities' (Ungar, 2004). Their change process is the most arduous and paradoxically often compounded by the systems of health, social care and youth justice that are intended to help. The chapter explores how research can open up central questions relating to power, personal agency and participation, and how these affect belief in self and healthy identities (which may not entirely equate to what is conventionally seen as being pro-social).