Winner of the 2020 Society for Social Work and Research Book Award
In Everyday Desistance, Laura Abrams and Diane J. Terry examine the lives of young people who spent considerable time in and out of correctional institutions as adolescents. These formerly incarcerated youth often struggle with the onset of adult responsibilities at a much earlier age than their more privileged counterparts. In the context of urban Los Angeles, with a large-scale gang culture and diminished employment prospects, further involvement in crime appears almost inevitable. Yet, as Abrams and Terry point out, these formerly imprisoned youth are often quite resilient and can be successful at creating lives for themselves after months or even years of living in institutions run by the juvenile justice system.
This book narrates the day-to-day experiences of these young men and women, focusing on their attempts to surmount the challenges of adulthood, resisting a return to criminal activity, and formulating long-term goals for a secure adult future.
"Using in-depth, in-person interviews, UCLA social welfare professor Laura S. Abrams and Diane J. Terry... have presented a more nuanced portrait of life after juvie"
"Abrams and Terry collected firsthand stories and insights to answer the following questions: What does everyday life look like for young people who age out of the juvenile justice system? And how do young people navigate the transition to adulthood while attempting to stay out of the hands of the law?"
"Timely, interesting, and well-written, the authors provide a comprehensive examination with accessible stories and ideas. Everyday Desistance fills a niche that needs to be filled."
"Everyday Desistance is a humanizing portrait of a group of young adults which brings readers to a compassionate understanding of their hardships as well as a great degree of admiration for their triumphs."
"Gripping stories... are at the center of “Everyday Desistance,” which examines the struggles of 25 youth who were formerly incarcerated at one of Los Angeles County’s juvenile halls or camps. All are about college age, when many young people are exploring boundaries and learning what it means to be an adult"
"This book is a must read for anyone looking to understand the complex daily choices of desistance and to support formerly incarcerated young people to not only survive in adulthood but also to thrive. For me, the book goes beyond the confines of juvenile justice readership — it holds important lessons for anyone working in child welfare to consider their work in the larger picture of poverty, community, incarceration and reentry."
"Everyday Desistance stands out as an important contribution to the now burgeoning literature on desistance."
---European Journal of Probation
"Laura Abrams and Diane Terry offer a richly detailed account of ‘formerly incarcerated youth’ and their struggle to emerge as adults. Desistance is part of the story, and the authors tell it well."
---Children & Society
"There is much to be gained from both a policy and theory perspective by reading Everyday Desistance. It is a well-written and engaging study that contributes to knowledge about re-entry and the journey toward desistance....We can learn a lot about how to help them reach this goal by reading this book."
---Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books
"Their sensitive appraisal of the intersecting social forces and social institutions, as well as the internal struggles that young people face, shines through in this book."
---The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice
Contents Foreword by Michelle Inderbitzin, PhD 1 Introduction 2 The Road to Juvie 3 Locked Up and Back Again 4 And Now I’m an Adult 5 Dangers and Decisions: Navigating Desistance as a Young Man 6 You Can Run but You Can’t Hide 7 Finding a Net to Fall Back On: The Young Woman’s Journeys 8 Everyday Desistance: Theory Meets Reality 9 Policy and Practice Reforms: Supporting the Pathway to Adulthood Acknowledgments Appendix: The Research Process Bibliography Index
LAURA S. ABRAMS is a professor in the Department of Social Welfare at the University of California, Los Angeles Luskin School of Public Affairs. She is the author of the award-winning book, Compassionate Confinement: A Year in the Life of Unit C (Rutgers University Press).
DIANE J. TERRY is a senior research associate at the Loyola Marymount University Psychology Applied Research Center in Los Angeles.
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