Conclusions and Recommendations

This chapter briefly highlights the main findings that have been found in quantitative and qualitative research on juvenile offenders in the lesser-studied context of Argentina, taking account of its socio-cultural context. Indeed, crime is a phenomenon that must be understood within the social framework to which it belongs. Additionally, since approaches to intervention must be adjusted according to analyses of within-individual changes we expect that the findings of the present study will provide relevant information for the prevention of recidivism and the promotion of desistance from crime in Argentina and internationally, for many reasons. First, a considerable body of recidivism and desistance research using qualitative methods has been developed in Europe, but very few studies have explored desistance from crime in South America, and particularly in Argentina. Second, the participants of our study consisted entirely of adolescents, which is relevant considering the strong relationship between age and delinquency and later recidivism. Third, the knowledge provided in the present book addressed a gap in the literature by (a) providing quantitative evidence examining to what extent there are differences and similarities in the prediction of criminal recidivism of young offenders in Argentina, compared with studies in other countries; (b) describing the processes of change that are related to individual transformations that lead young offenders to move away from a criminal life and reintegrate into the community, in order to inform future interventions aimed to reduce recidivism and promote desistance in Argentina and internationally and (c) since approaches to intervention must be adjusted according to analyses of within-individual changes, the findings of the present book provide relevant information for the prevention of recidivism and the promotion of desistance from crime in Argentina and internationally.