317 C.L. Gibson and M.D. Krohn (eds.), Handbook of Life-Course Criminology: Emerging Trends and Directions for Future Research, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-5113-6_18, © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 18 Life-Course Perspectives and Prisoner Reentry Daniel P. Mears, Joshua C. Cochran, and Sonja E. Siennick Introduction The goal of this chapter is to argue both that prisoner reentry research may be improved by systematically drawing on life-course perspec- tives and, conversely, that life-course theoretical perspectives may be improved by systematically investigating reentry. The salience of these arguments stems from the fact that reentry popu- lations in the USA have increased dramatically and thus present a significant policy challenge (Bushway & Apel, 2012; Mears & Mestre, 2012). At the same time, they present an oppor- tunity to understand better the unfolding of offending over time and what leads some indi- viduals to persist in crime and others to desist. To date, relatively few studies of reentry or, indeed, of offending, follow individuals from childhood to death, despite the increasingly greater priority among criminologists and policymakers on understanding and promoting desistance from offending (Bushway & Apel, 2012; DeLisi & Piquero, 2011; Farrington, 2003; Kurlychek, Bushway, & Brame, 2012). Implicit in the notion of desistance is the idea that offending may unfold along different trajectories (or pathways), that different groups may fall into some trajectories, and that individuals may be pushed into or out of these trajectories by various individual or social forces. Some individuals, for example, persist in offending but then may veer off this trajectory. This possibility holds particular relevance, of course, for reentry discussions because the goal of correctional systems is not only to punish those who break the law but also to reintegrate them into society. Exceptions, such as the Laub and Sampson (2003) study, clearly exist. They followed 500 men from the pioneering Glueck and Glueck (1968) study who had been placed in Massachusetts reform schools during the 1940s. Laub and Sampson’s (2003) study highlights the fruitfulness of applying a life-course perspective to understanding offend- ing. It led, for example, to analyses that examined behavior over many decades and to the concomitant insight that there may be “counterproductive effects of punitive sanctions, such as incarceration, when considered in the long run of individual lives” (p. 291). It led, too, to an understanding that life events, such as incarceration, may influence an array of outcomes over the life course. As but one example, they found that “incarceration as a young adult had a negative effect on later job stability, which in turn was negatively related to continued involvement in crime over the life course” (p. 209). This type of study is the exception not the rule. The bulk of studies delimit their focus to cross-sectional analyses or relatively short periods of observation, typically D.P. Mears, Ph.D. (*) • J.C. Cochran, M.S. • S.E. Siennick, Ph.D. College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University, 634 West Call Street, Hecht House, Tallahassee, FL 32306-1127, USA e-mail: dmears@fsu.edu; jcochran@fsu.edu; ssiennick@fsu.edu The authors thank John Haggerty for his research assistance.