ABSTRACTFROM THE STREETS TO STREET WORKER: TRANSITIONS AND TRANSFORMATIONS IN AND OUT OF CRIME By Joseph D. JohnsonThis study examines the criminal desistance processes of the One Vision One Life (OVOL) street gang workers (N = 45) and the role that OVOL violence prevention work and/or any other factors play in this process. Through an ethnographic research design utilizing multiple methodologies, the purpose of this study was then to understand the street gang workers past personal and criminal experiences, the challenges they face upon their violence prevention employment with OVOL, and the strategies that they adopt to successfully or unsuccessfully desist from crime. The findings reveal that while OVOL employment is an opportunity for legitimate work, the general reality for street workers is that this type of work is not only dangerous but that the organization also lacks a level of structure, resources, and training for its employees. Therefore, desistance through OVOL employment and work is declared by only a small subsample of the street workers who participated in this study, and these street workers specifically express that the OVOL Director offered them employment and work at the right-point-in-time in their lives--thus serving as a sort of intervention for them. The majority of the street workers then contend that it was their personal agency or will to give up crime, and, coupled with and compounded by OVOL employment and work, that they made a personal commitment to the desistance process.
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