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Although there is a strong and growing literature in the two areas of desistance and addiction recovery, they have developed along parallel pathways with little systematic assessment of the empirical evidence about the co-occurrence of the relationship or how one area can learn from the other. This book aims to fill that gap by bringing together emerging literature on the relationship between offending and substance use. Instead of focusing on the active period of its onset and persistence, this book examines the mechanisms that support desistance, addiction recovery, and the common themes of reintegration and rehabilitation. With contributions from a wide range of international experts in the fields of desistance and addiction recovery, the book focuses on a strengths-based, relational and community-focused approach to long-term change in offending and drug-using populations, as well as the shared barriers to effective reintegration for both. This book will be highly informative for a wide audience, from academics and students interested in studying desistance and recovery to those working in addiction services and the criminal justice system as well as policy makers and the people undertaking their own journeys to desistance and recovery

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. Putting forward a new recovery roadmap and new reform models for prisoners reintegration, Best provides an accessible guide for the implementation of community partnerships for people in recovery from substance abuse or rehabilitating from offending. Using case studies and a strengths-based approach the book emphasizes the importance of long-term recovery and the role that communities and peers play in the process.

1. Introducing addiction, behavioural change and social identity / Sarah A. Buckingham and David Best -- 2. Applying the social identity approach in clinical and health domains : key principles and insights / S. Alexander Haslam [and others] -- 3. Addiction recovery, mutual-help organizations and social identity / John F. Kelly, Brandon G. Bergman and Corrie L. Vilsaint -- 4. Using social identity to promote health : the impact of group memberships on health in the context of obesity / Claire Farrow, Mark Tarrant and Sammyh Khan -- 5. Group identification and addictive health behaviours in adolescents / Kirsty Miller, Juliet R.H. Wakefield and Fabio Sani -- 6. Addiction to crime and a social identity of recovery / Jacqueline Malton -- The associative reflective model of social identification (ARMS) : with a particular emphasis upon addiction, behavioural change and social identity / Sarah A. Buckingham -- 8. Developing the social identitiy model of cessation maintenance : theory, evidence and implication / Daniel Frings and Ian P. Albery -- 9. Online support communities in addiction recovery : capturing social interaction and identity change through analyses of online communication / Ana-Maria Bliuc [and others] -- 10. Social identity mapping : measuring social identity change in recovery from addiction / Catherine Haslam [and others] -- 11. Building bridges to positive social identities : the Social Network Diagram and opiate substitution treatment / Edward Day -- 12. Addiction, behavioural change and social identity : overview and concluding comments / David Best and Sarah A. Buckingham.

Painful life events have been highlighted as being instrumental in promoting change during drug addiction recovery. This paper attempts to integrate the 'pains of desistance' approach into a recovery capital framework. It explores the life courses of 30 people in drug addiction recovery who had previously had a problem with an illicit substance to explore the role of the pains of recovery (potential push factors) alongside different forms of recovery capital (pull factors) at key turning points of change during recovery. Findings demonstrate that pull factors linked to CHIME were significant in promoting positive changes. Turning points acted as antidotes to pains experienced in early recovery. Three antidotes appeared to be gender specific. Implications highlight the need for greater access to community capital pathways. It advocates the need to dispel the myth for a rock bottom moment and for a more macro conceptualisation of drug addiction recovery.

It has long been recognised that changes in social networks (and the underpinning changes in personal and social identity) are strong predictors of both desistance from crime and recovery from substance use. Building on existing work attempting to measure and shift social networks and transitions to prosocial groups, the current study provides pilot data from prisoners and family members about a visualisation technique widely used in specialist addiction treatment (node-link mapping) to map opportunities for linkage to prosocial groups and networks. The data presented in the paper are from a small-scale feasibility pilot. This suggests both bonding and bridging capital in prisoner populations due for release and the diversity of community capital opportunities that exists in this population. The implications of this work are significant for substance users and offenders pending return to the community, and has implications around resettlement and reintegration support for probation staff in prisons and in the community. The paper emphasises the importance of mapping connectedness as a key component of planning for reintegration back into the community for those working with offenders who are aspiring to achieve desistance and recovery.