An evaluation of the retrospective accounts of offenders as a means to promote desistance amongst acquisitive offenders

There are various considerations which former offenders give for ceasing to commit offences. These involve references to more mature decision-making, reformed ways of regarding the victim and realisations that risks of offending outweigh the rewards. This study draws upon twenty semi-structured and visually-based qualitative interviews with probationers to examine the role that these factors played in engendering desistance from acts of acquisitive crime. A tailored evaluation of desistance does not appear to have been undertaken. The outcome of these findings and how, in the future, they could facilitate the supervision of individuals on probation is critically discussed.