tion, alienation, stigma, chaos, shame, lack of confidence, addiction, trauma, and poverty. The list goes on and on with hundreds of barriers and restric- tions. There are landmines everywhere. What the speaker was saying about “following the footsteps” was that, when it comes to the minefield of a criminal lifestyle, the wise approach is to study the behavior and personal stories of those who’ve actually made it out and managed to build new, healthy, thriving lives. This research into how people find their way out and thrive after prison is called Desistance Theory. As in “cease and desist.” As in “stop and stay stopped.” Desistance theory looks at the process of how men and women wind down and stop their criminal careers and stay stopped. With remark- able consistency, the thousands and thousands of stories desistance theorists have researched point to five key elements of the pathway out of the minefield. Those five key elements are: First, an openness to change. Often, there’s some sort of breakdown that opens the way to a breakthrough—a coming-to-yourself moment, a kind of surrender, an external conviction leading to an inner conviction. Second, finding good hooks or turning points. We all know that it isn’t enough simply to be open to change. That open door of motivation can slam shut again if there’s nowhere to go next. There need to be some tangible peo- ple, places, and things to hook into and explore, something bigger than our- selves. Some common good hooks or turning points are a healthy marriage, meaningful work, the military, and church. Third, seeing a positive future new self. Researchers call this “identity work.” There’s a lot of scholarly literature on the centrality of this process, and it talks about things like “redemption scripts,” rituals of acceptance, “making good,” overcoming shame, and forging a new self. The parallels to the church’s work on discipleship are obvious, aren’t they? They’re literally speaking our lan- guage. Fourth, seeing the old, false self, and putting it away. Again, this kind of language is second-nature to our Christian understanding of identity and our new identity in Christ. To be able to look at our past self and say, “That wasn’t the true me, the real me. That was the old me, the false me, the me that’s being overcome by my new self that God is creating in me.” This is not one-and- done but a process. Fifth, the broader community’s willingness to welcome someone coming home. Desistance isn’t only a matter of what’s happening internally to the one heading home. It’s also deeply affected by the way society applies negative or
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