The importance of social relations in personal change

This article outlines the findings of a study of the pathways into and out of offending of a naturally forming group (or gang) whose lives had shared beginnings but diverse outcomes. The study showed how relationships within and outwith the group shaped and affected the members’ likelihood of offending and desistance, and thus how individual, relational, cultural and social contexts influence onset, persistence of, and desistance from offending.