Work on Desistance: Extending the Examination of Pathways of Change to Strengthen Support for Exit Trajectories

This bibliographic update provides an overview of research on desistance, drawing in particular on the Anglo-Saxon sphere. After a reminder of the genealogy of the concept and a review of the key authors’ work, the article explores the main theoretical trends that have emerged to discuss their contribution to support the process of desistance. A presentation of the most recent lines of research and of the first comparative perspectives completes this overview. The article concludes by listing the difficulties inherent in the study of such a process of change as well as the potential ways in which it might be extended.