Research project Policing Gang Desistance
Gang desistance programs have become established as a central political strategy in Sweden. Within policing research, however, few studies have examined how the police can facilitate pathways to desistance for gang members.
Similarly, desistance research has paid little attention to policing and how the police might assist offenders’ desistance transitions. This study brings together the two fields of policing and desistance research to analyse police-led gang desistance programs.
By means of qualitative interviews and micro-ethnography, the project aims to explore on the one hand how gang desistance is understood, facilitated or counteracted by the police and practitioners, and on the other how gang desistance is perceived and experienced by gang members who participate, or have participated, in such programs. Theoretically, this project applies a nodal governance perspective on policing, and the perspective of assisted desistance.
The three-year research project will be headed by associate professor Anita Heber and Dr. Anders Stenström at Malmö University. The researchers will be supported by an international advisory board of academics and practitioners.
The project will produce new insights for police and practitioners into potential pitfalls and best practice with regard to policing desistance. It will develop a theoretical understanding of what these programs can tell us about the potentials of desistance policing in contemporary society.
Project members
Project managers
Anita Heber
Professor
Members
Anders Stentström
