The interplay of social capital, faith, and offender resettlement

The interplay of social capital, faith, and offender resettlement Sarah Plimley Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.- This paper aims to explore the intricate relationship between social capital, faith and prison-leaver resettlement, emphasising how penal voluntary sector organisations (PVSOs) aid prison-leavers in their resettlement and desistance journeys, following incarceration.Employing a combination of narrative and thematic analysis, data was collected from 20 prison-leavers in England through semi-structured interviews. Purposive and snowball sampling was used to recruit participants from various community-based resettlement settings.Thematic analysis revealed the emergence of faith in various iterations in facilitating desistance, Transforming Rehabilitation failure, identity transformation of the prison-leaver, the role of social capital in effective resettlement and the importance of PVSOs. In particular, the findings demonstrate the vital role of a “Faith Anchor”, defined in this paper as a trust-based relationship with an individual or spiritual entity, in facilitating desistance. This paper argues the need to recognise and fully integrate social capital building, faith and specialised support from PVSOs, as essential components of successful offender resettlement and desistance journeys.The study considers the connection between faith, social capital and offender resettlement. Although demonstr...
Source: Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice - Category: Criminology Authors: Source Type: research