“I am No Longer Active, but I will Always Be a Crip”: A Longitudinal Ethnography (N = 1) of Gang Desistance in the Netherlands

This article centers on the process of (gang) desistance of Jermaine, a man with a substantial criminal record who has been a member of the Dutch Crips gang for over a decade. Drawing on longitudinal ethnographic research, Jermaine’s process of desistance is outlined. This life story illustrates how much desistance should be understood as a struggle, accompanied by periods of relapsing into old patterns of (criminal) behavior. In addition to these more practical challenges in terms of act-desistance (Nugent and Schinkel, 2016), Jermaine's story showcases the importance of identity in the process of desistance. Above all, Jermaine's story indicates that for some, desistance means that the old criminal or gang identity does not need to be cast aside, but that it becomes part of the new identity of the desister.