Supporting desistance through ambiguous practice: what can be learned from the first prison-based model of CoSA in England and Wales?

Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA) are an initiative designed to support those previously convicted of sexual offences as they reintegrate back in to society, whilst still holding them accountable for their thoughts and behaviour (Cesaroni, 2002). The aim of the research was to explore the Core Member and volunteer experience of being involved in a CoSA that transitions from prison to community, with the objective being to focus upon what can be learnt from these initial experiences. The study included qualitative interviews with two separate groups of participants; Core Members (n=7) and volunteers (n=10) involved in the prison-model CoSA. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the data was undertaken to consider the individual’s subjective experience of being involved in this initiative. A superordinate theme of ambiguous practice was identified, whereby volunteers appeared to overlook the importance of expressive support, described a lack of commitment from other fellow volunteers and demonstrated a confusion surrounding the accountability aspect of their role. Despite the confusion highlighted, however, the accountability aspect of the volunteers’ role was identified through their indirect support of Core members’ desistance. The second superordinate theme outlined the volunteers’ encouragement of the Core Members new pro-social lifestyle, thus helping to reinforce their crime -free identity. This led to a concern, however, of what would happen once the CoSA journey had come to an end. The learning derived from these findings can now be used to continue to develop and improve the use of prison-model CoSA across England and Wales