Part of the third edition of Scottish Justice Matters, the themed section of this edition was realised with the support of Creative Scotland, and focuses on the arts and criminal justice (mostly) in Scotland. The theme of desistance is developed as a major question in relation to projects involving the arts in criminal justice. Guest editors, Sarah Armstrong and Kirsten Sams, sought contributions that addressed ideas about investment in arts as often ambivalent, ranging from scepticism to more punitively motivated questions about why public money should be spent enabling offenders to participate in arts based projects, whereas support for others from equally deprived backgrounds is less forthcoming. The contributions actively address these questions and provide ample justification for the involvement of arts based projects within and without prisons.

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