Abstract

Desistance as a theoretical framework broadly considers the ways and means by which people come to stop offending and live well-rounded lives. However, as a framework it has not sufficiently acknowledged and considered the range of resources invested in the support by those closest to the ‘desister’. Such support is often understood to be fundamental to desistance success. As the antiquated saying goes, ‘behind every successful man there stands a woman’, and indeed – grounded in our own and others’ research and experiences of practice - desistance support work is often carried out by women. When working with people and families affected by the criminal legal system, the aspects of gendered roles and expectations, such as how and by whom emotional supportive work is carried out, are important factors to consider. It may be that the ways in which we conceptualise, respond to, and support desistance can acknowledge these relational dynamics in more defined, gender-sensitive ways. This article firstly explores how supporting desistance can be experienced by, and impact on, women holding different roles, both professional and personal, illustrating a continuum of gendered practices within and across these. It then goes on to propose two theoretical mechanisms of identifying the emotional burdens of desistance, namely, Desistance Emotional Work and Emotional Capital. It is argued that incorporating these two mechanisms into practice may go some way to identify and recognise emotional investments in supporting desistance, including the gendered aspects of such, to ensure that practices in and around desistance do not further gender disparity and expectations of women’s unpaid work.