Jessica Cleary

Working Title of PhD: Exploring the influence of desistance scholarship within community justice policies and initiatives for women in Scotland.

Year commenced PhD study: 2018

Institution/Organisation: University of Stirling

Funding Source: ESRC

Full or part-time: Part-Time

PhD Supervisors: Prof Margaret Malloch and Dr Hannah Graham

Synopsis

This PhD intents to develop a more intersectional understanding of how desistance-focused scholarship has constructed and influenced contemporary Community Justice policies and initiatives for women in Scotland. By conducting a range of mixed primary qualitative data collection methods, with both professionals working in the Community Justice sector as well as women with lived experience of community-based punishments, this study will achieve 3 key aims. First, it will explore the extent to which ideas of desistance manifest in Scottish community justice policies and other official discourse. Second, it will gauge how these policies both translate and influence day to day practices. And finally identify both theoretical and practical ways the state can better support women involved with community-based justice interventions.

This study into the intersectionality of gender and desistance is an area of growing popularity in both policy and academia; especially within the current emerging landscape of changing Criminal Justice strategies for women and the national restructuring of Community Justice provision. This in-depth analysis of the Scottish context will not only be relevant for Scotland’s front-line provisions for women with convictions but also for international policies and practices which seek to support female desistance from crime. It will also make noteworthy contributions to the academic development of gender-informed desistance scholarship and theoretical engagements regarding ‘community justice’.