The developmental durability of criminal persistence: A theory of diachronic identity reorganization

Criminology has long sought to explain both the persistence of offending and the processes through which individuals desist, yet the mechanisms through which behavioral patterns endure and reorganize across changing contexts remain insufficiently specified. This article advances a theoretical framework for explaining criminal persistence and desistance through the developmental durability and reorganization of identity structures. Distinguishing between behavioral persistence and identity persistence, it argues that survival-oriented identities emerge through adaptive engagement with structurally constrained environments and continue to organize perception and behavior across contexts. To account for change, the article introduces the concept of diachronic identity reorganization. Rather than treating desistance as linear identity replacement, the model conceptualizes transformation as an oscillatory process in which individuals reinterpret prior narratives, comparatively evaluate competing value–behavior linkages, and stabilize emergent configurations through structural reinforcement. By specifying a mechanism linking persistence and desistance within a single developmental framework, the article contributes to criminological theory by integrating identity, development, and structural context into a unified account of behavioral continuity and change.