Youth Desistance in Transition: Navigating Change in Late Adolescence

By Christopher Kay

This book offers a new and innovative way of thinking about desistance from crime, fusing our understanding of desistance transitions, youth transitions, and the impact of significant policy change on people with convictions in a way which is yet to be seen in the available desistance literature. It offers a critical account of the ways in which young adults move away from involvement in crime, while also navigating the numerous personal, social, and structural transitions that characterise late adolescence.

By exploring the desistance narratives of young adult men under community supervision in England and Wales during the part privatisation of the probation service, the book demonstrates the immediate impact of significant criminal justice policy change on those on the receiving end of such change. Given the expansion of neoliberal ideas in criminal justice and the ever-changing nature of criminal justice policy across the world, it is vital that we develop a critical understanding of the impact of these changes upon the, often-overlooked, people on the receiving end of them if we are to understand how such changes can be successful. This book provides the first of such discussions, charting the ways in which people with convictions navigate seemingly all-encompassing change to lead a life free from crime.

Youth Desistance in Transition will be of interest to students and scholars of criminology and criminal justice, particularly those focused on understanding desistance pathways. It will also appeal to policymakers and social workers involved with youth justice and rehabilitation.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1032915811
• ISBN13: 9781032915814
• Release Date: October 2025
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 218 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.2"