Living with desistance: Breaking the cycle By DavidHoneywell. Abingdon: Routledge. 2024. pp. 166. £104.00 (hbk). ISBN: 9781032228440; £31.19 (pbk). ISBN: 9781032228457; £35.99 (ebk). ISBN: 9781003274452

Living with desistance is a powerful and moving text combining Honeywell's autobiographical personal testimony with a robust theoretical critique of desistance theories. Written at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the book comes ten years after Honeywell's self-published autobiography Never ending circles (Honeywell, 2012). It follows his doctoral thesis, Ex-prisoners and the transformation of self through higher education (Honeywell, 2018), and his more recent book The ambiguities of desistance (Honeywell, 2021). As Honeywell notes: ‘Rarely do desisters get the chance to provide an in-depth account of their desistance journeys from a privileged academic position’ (p.2). Here, Honeywell presents himself as a longitudinal case study in desistance and offers an alternative, compelling perspective on the intricacies of the process. The book can be viewed in three ‘movements’. The first movement comprises the opening two chapters where Honeywell situates this latest contribution within his academic output to date. He highlights that, while many of the same experiences are revisited, this text offers subjective judgment and a more nuanced understanding of desistance theories. The second movement ranges from Chapters 3 to 9 where Honeywell critically explores the transition from ‘disaffected youth’ to a ‘respectable criminologist and researcher’ (p.13). He provides a detailed description of his journey to and through the criminal justice system. In the third and final movement, consisting of Chapters 10 to 12, Honeywell considers how he navigates and lives with inescapable stigma noting the life-changing impact of education and academic success. His positionality as an academic with lived experience has afforded him a relatively unique opportunity to self-reflect on the linkage between critical episodes in his early life and the influence on his transition into and out of criminality. However, the strength of the book is the clarity of Honeywell's writing and his ability to communicate his story to help others make sense of their own. The central position outlined in the first movement is that, contrary to purely academic perspectives, desistance is dependent both on a broad range of external factors such as ‘alcohol, drugs, people and places’ (p.5) and internal influences such as shifts in behaviours, identities and a sense of belonging. Evidencing this position, Honeywell draws examples and recurring themes from his own journey including masculinity, identity, and the long-term impact of abuse. He recalls painful and deeply traumatic experiences such as the instability that resulted from a military childhood, the impact of his fractured relationship with his father, and living a life on the periphery – never quite ‘belonging’ in any sense. He acknowledges that he was ‘a very disturbed young man’ (p.36) remarking that, at the point at which he entered his first military detention centre for breaking army rules, while he had no criminal record the convictions which followed were a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ (p.45). Discussing his first offence in 1983, Honeywell depicts his experiences in the magistrates’ court and on remand where he was housed in a cell separate from the main prison wing due to his history of depression. The separation of offenders with mental disorders is still routinely praised as a progressive move within the criminal justice system, leading the public to believe that prisoners are well-treated upon entry into the estate and processed according to their individual needs. It is also posed as a safeguarding move, shielding those suffering with mental ill health from the main prison population. Honeywell presents a polarising alternative view here, commenting that the separation process is anything but individualised. Noting the range of illnesses and convictions present, he refers to the hospital wing as: ‘a place of massive despair, sadness and suffering’ (p.54). Honeywell proceeds to detail his prison-based experiences and provides a particularly visceral description in Chapter 6, ‘Durham prison’. He discusses Sykes's (1958) ‘Pains of imprisonment’ in the context of Category D prisons. Here, he expands on: ‘the nuanced set of crises synonymous with being housed in open prisons’ (p.100) and the lesser-known and seldom written-about experiences of the pains of imprisonment and deprivations in low-security prisons. This adds a significant contribution to the literature on the pains of imprisonment which ordinarily focuses on occurrences within high-security estates. In the final movement, while the core themes explored are masculinity, sustained trauma, identity and belonging, there are two additional themes which contrast with Honeywell's profoundly saddening account of his early years. First, the lasting positive influence of Honeywell's mother is undeniable – he depicts her as a source of strength and a catalysing influence on his will to change. His deep respect and admiration for her is clear throughout his writing, particularly in his reflections on the shame of imprisonment. Honeywell portrays his mother as a formidable woman, and one of the only constants in his life who shares his capacity to survive and ability to forge a path out of the most challenging times. While Honeywell argues with, and often counters, some of the established theories of desistance, there is occasional alignment. This relationship, for instance, aligns with theories on identifying ‘hooks for change’ (Giordano, Cernkovich & Rudolph, 2002). Second, the unmistakable theme of hope develops and is most evident in Chapter 12, ‘Being a convict criminologist’ where Honeywell focuses on the trajectory of convict criminologists and inescapable stigma. At various points, Honeywell examines the development of mental ill health throughout his life course and refers to the ‘double stigma’ associated with depression and being a product of a single-parent family (p.117). He notes that his battle with depression, his late diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, and his former reliance on alcohol to self-medicate during difficult times all contributed to his low sense of self-worth and belonging. Here, he comments that even though challenges remain, the key to success is to ‘never give up’. Resultingly, Honeywell is testament to the power of education, and his writing demonstrates how advantageous first-hand experiences are to understandings of life-course criminology. But for the brutal honesty of Honeywell's narrative and his unique ability to critically self-reflect, the book would not be as powerful or as impactful. It is a masterclass in perseverance, resilience and self-belief, and an invaluable resource for those in search of hope.