Desistance, Resistance, and Normalcy

This book explores how normalcy looks from desisters point of view, thereby shedding light on the gendered, classed, and age-graded harms of the normal life desisters (are told to) aspire to as well as the forms of resistance involved in approaching it.

This book provides a nuanced, critical analysis of desistance from crime, particularly through the lens of womens experiences. It develops desistance theory by interrogating the concept of normalcy, highlighting how normative societal expectations cause harms on desistance journeys. Through this lens, the book uncovers tensions between desistance as a journey towards societal (re)integration and the resistance desisters experience when encountering state institutions and social norms. Being no longer part of the old life, and not yet part of the new, desisters face both familiar and unfamiliar harms.

A key conceptual contribution is the books critique of normalcy as both an as