Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to search

Social Science General

Pathways to Ruin?

High-Risk Offending over the Life Course

by (author) Erin Gibbs Van Brunschot & Tamara Humphrey

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Jun 2022
Category
General, Social Theory, Criminology
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781487527112
    Publish Date
    Jun 2022
    List Price
    $80.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781487527129
    Publish Date
    Jun 2022
    List Price
    $29.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781487527143
    Publish Date
    May 2022
    List Price
    $29.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781487527136
    Publish Date
    May 2022
    List Price
    $29.95

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Description

Individuals who have committed a number of crimes over their lifetimes have had complex, multi-faceted life experiences often characterized by extreme disadvantage and victimization. Those who are formally designated as "high-risk" by the Canadian criminal justice system often have a record of violent or sexual crimes. As a result, they are usually subject to additional monitoring in the community after completing a prison sentence.

 

Pathways to Ruin? disentangles the numerous elements and pathways that lead to high rates of reoffending by focusing on developmental periods of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. The book uses a case-study approach to consider individuals’ entire crime pathway by examining the circumstances and factors that contribute to assumptions or official designations of "high-risk" behaviour. Erin Gibbs Van Brunschot and Tamara Humphrey overhaul society’s popular crime narratives and instead draw on sociological and criminological perspectives to identify historical, social, and personal contexts that appear to increase the likelihood of reoffending. They also consider how negative life experiences may be addressed to circumvent trajectories of serious offending. Reducing the social distance that the "law-abiding" public may feel towards marginalized groups, Pathways to Ruin? details how legal systems could better serve these individuals, and acknowledges the many missed opportunities for compassion.

About the authors

Erin Gibbs Van Brunschot is a professor of Sociology and the director of Centre for Military, Security, and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary.

Erin Gibbs Van Brunschot's profile page

Tamara Humphrey is an assistant professor of Sociology at the University of Victoria.

Tamara Humphrey's profile page