SLIPPED · Maintenance and relapse in long-term desistance from crime and recovery from addiction
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2019-07-01 → 2021-06-30
- EU contribution
- €224,934
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Maintenance and relapse in long-term desistance from crime and recovery from addiction
Long-term desistance from crime, that is, individuals who have achieved a minimum of three years crime free living, has received limited attention from scholars thus far. The majority of studies have focused on ‘probationers’, that is, individuals recently released from prison seeking to resettle into employment, community, and society. This significant knowledge gap is due, in large part, to the difficulty of accessing desisting people once they move away from supervision and support services. Further, the relationship between crime and drug misuse is a fascinating area of study where very many questions remain to be answered. It is therefore crucial that this potentially fruitful area of study receives attention, especially considering the strong relationship between criminal offending and substance dependence. The general aim of this project is to understand maintenance and relapse amongst individuals in long-term desistance from crime and recovery from addiction. Many individuals suffering with addiction do not commit acquisitive crime to fund their addictions. Similarly, many people engaged in acquisitive, enterprise, or hostile crime, do not have an addictive relationship with substances. In these cases, processes of desistance from crime and recovery from addiction are independent. This proposed research will examine the interdependent processes of long-term desistance from crime and recovery from addiction within individuals who were formerly drug addicted persistent offenders. A key consideration of this proposed research is to gain insight into why processes of long-term desistance and recovery break-down, and relapse into crime and drug use occur. Therefore, by drawing on the knowledge of Criminology and Addiction Studies, the central objective of this Fellowship is to address the neglected area of maintenance and relapse amongst former drug addicted persistent offenders who have/had achieved more than three years sobriety. The Fellowships intent is to contribute to knowledge related to societal challenges in the particular areas of European Health and European Security. Sixty individuals, split evenly between two sample populations, were interviewed for this research. Firstly, men and women who have achieved a minimum of three years uninterrupted abstinence from both criminal offending and drug addiction. The second sample consisted of men and women who are at the beginnings of their recovery journey (within the first year), but who had previously achieved long-term desistance and recovery and then relapsed.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The primary objective of this research is to investigate the dual processes of desistance from crime and recovery from addiction within the same population. The research therefore targets a thus far neglected area of scholarly study. Specifically, the aims of the Fellowship are twofold, i) to understand the personal, social, and structural factors that contribute towards ‘long-term’ desistance and recovery, and ii) to explore why individuals who had achieved more than three years success in both processes then experience relapse and recidivism. The research process will have three avenues of investigation, i) an interdisciplinary review of relevant literature and studies from the disciplines of Criminology and Addiction Studies, ii) an analysis of relevant legislature, and iii) sixty semi-structured qualitative interviews to uncover the nuances and complexities of maintenance and relapse in long-term desistance and recovery. Research data will be collected in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Dublin, Republic of Ireland. The researcher will work out of the host institution, Queens University Belfast, under the supervision of a world leader in the field, Prof. Shadd Maruna. Participants will be recruited through a careful and determined process, overseen by the research supervisor, which will engage with statutory and non-statutory supervision and support services for former offenders and recovering substance misusers. The project will generate new knowledge relevant for the H2020 societal challenges 1 (Health, Demographic Change and Wellbeing) and 7 (Secure Societies). Further, the European Union Drugs Strategy 2013-20 identifies achieving a better understanding of addiction recovery and rehabilitation as central to the task of ‘Demand Reduction’.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- THE QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST · BELFASTCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union