The Unmaking of Crime

Valerian Benazeth holds a PhD in political science at the university of Paris-Saclay (France) and is an associate researcher at the CESDIP research Center. Educated in France and in the US as an exchange student (UTEP, TX), and then as a teaching assistant (Williams college, MA), he conducted one of the first empirical study about desistance in France. His doctoral research integrated a three-year fieldwork, received merit scholarships from the City of Paris and from the French Department of Justice. After serving for a time as the head of the research department inside the French Youth Justice Board, he resumed teaching at university in France.

1. Introduction: beyond ‘us’ and ‘them’ 2. Understanding knowledge about desistance: The empirical and practical contribution of a continent of research 3. Methodology: retracing desistance journeys using in-depth interviews 4. Is there a French accent in desistance processes? 5.The economics of desistance: experimenting with the limits of its power to deconstruct the cult of money 6. Desistance and religion: a passport to redefine one’s affiliations? 7. The intertwining of addictions in desistance processes: the role of an airlock or a bridge 8. Becoming an ordinary citizen again: another anchor for the desistance processes 9. The ambivalent effects of prison 10. Desistance and probation: the paradox of limited institutional effects 11. Desistance and electronic surveillance: leverage with varying degrees of success 12. Contextualising and extending knowledge about desistance