Joanna Shapland is Edward Bramley Professor of Criminal Justice in the University of Sheffield and Director of the Centre for Criminological Research. She was awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award by the British Society of Criminology in 2013 and is Executive Editor of the International Review of Victimology.

Stephen Farrall is Professor of Criminology in the Centre for Criminological Research at the University of Sheffield. Stephen also edits the International Series on Desistance and Rehabiliation (published by Routledge).

Anthony Bottoms is Emeritus Wolfson Professor of Criminology in the University of Cambridge and Honorary Professor of Criminology in the University of Sheffield. He is also a Fellow of the British Academy. With Joanna Shapland, he co-directs the Sheffield Desistance Study.

Introduction (Joanna Shapland, Stephen Farrall and Anthony Bottoms)

Section I: Agency, structure and desistance from crime

1. Mechanisms underlying the desistance process: Reflections on 'A theory of cognitive transformation' (Peggy C. Giordano)

2. Human agency, criminal careers and desistance (Christoffer Carlsson)

3. "I've always tried but I hadn't got the willpower": Understanding pathways to desistance in the Republic of Ireland (Deirdre Healy)

4. Structural context and pathways to desistance (José Cid and Joel Marti)

Section II: Life phases and desistance

5. Key behavioral aspects of desistance from conduct problems and delinquency (Rolf Loeber, Magda Stouthamer-Loeber, and Lia Ahonen)

6. Learning to desist in early adulthood: the Sheffield Desistance Study (Anthony Bottoms and Joanna Shapland)

7. Observations from the Pathways to Desistance study: Some issues to consider in future work on desistance from adolescence to early adulthood (Edward P. Mulvey and Carol A. Schubert)

8. How important are life-course transitions in explaining desistance? Examining the extent to which marriage, divorce and parenthood account for the age-crime relationship in former juvenile delinquents (Arjan Blokland and Niek de Schipper)

9. Timing of change: Are life course transitions causes or consequences of desistance? (Torbjørn Skardhamar and Jukka Savolainen)

Section III: Criminal justice and state interventions

10. Understanding desistance in an assisted context: Key findings from tracking progress on probation (Stephen Farrall)

11. In search of desistance: Notes from an Australian study (Mark Halsey)

12. The increasing stickiness of public labels (Chris Uggen and Lindsay Blahnik)

13. Understanding and identifying desistance: an example exploring the utility of sealing criminal records (Megan C. Kurlychek, Shaun D. Bushway and Megan Denver)

14. The fuel in the tank or the hole in the boat? Can sanctions support desistance? (Fergus McNeill)

Afterword: diversity or congruence? (Joanna Shapland, Stephen Farrall and Anthony Bottoms)