The Cultural Applicability of Desistance Research within the Arab (Syrian) Region

This article assesses the extent to which the (Western) literature on desistance from crime has explanatory value when understood within the Arab (Syrian) context—a region of vast ethnic, religious and geopolitical diversity, in which criminological assessments remain rare. Drawing on primary data with practitioners working and living in the Syrian region, we utilize this unique data source to explain how and why many commonly cited features of desistance evidenced in the Western world fail to translate in the Syrian context. These include factors such as marriage, military service and religion. We highlight explanations for these differences and provide implications for understanding desistance in non-Western contexts.