From ‘what works’ to desistance in probation? A commentary

Let me start with a personal note. My first reading of the book was in 2004. At that moment, I had in mind to write a book on suspended sentences and probation in the framework of the rehabilitation model. I remember having a conversation with a Spanish criminologist settled in England who advised to me to read Rethinking What Works with Offenders. In order to convince me, he said something like ‘It’s a new perspective’. I followed the advice of my colleague and I read the book. The experience was very stimulating. At that moment, I was only to some extent familiar with the What Works perspective and the book made me aware of the fact that different viewpoints might illuminate probation practice. Some books are a turning point in your research interests and Rethinking What Works with Offenders encouraged me to devote more time to reading the desistance literature and to undertaking research on desistance that we were able to carry out in the next decade (Cid & Marti, 2012, 2017; Marti, Albani, Ibanez, & Cid, 2019).