Abstract
Research and theory suggest that desistance narratives and pro-social identities are key to the process of desistance from crime. However, little research has examined how desistance narratives and related identities are produced in contexts other than research interviews or how core correctional skills intersect with the development of these narratives or identities. This study applies discourse analysis and conversation analysis to transcripts of 12 video-recordings of groupwork sessions for addressing sexual offending, examining how desistance narratives and identities are produced, and how practitioner skills and conversational styles intersect with their production. The analysis illustrates how criminal justice practitioners help to co-author desistance narratives through subtle and explicit aspects of interaction, although certain orientations to risk may limit this potential.
Highlights
To desist from offending, research suggests individuals need to construct a non-offending identity, one incompatible with offending behaviour and consistent with future prosocial aspirations, which coherently accounts for past offending (Giordano, Cernkovich, & Rudolph, 2002; Maruna, 2001; Rocque, Posick, & Paternoster, 2016)
Where do desistance narratives and non-offending identities come from? Given narratives and identities are social in nature, they are likely formed, at least partly, through social interaction
I.e. probation supervision and structured programmes, provide interactional spaces for people to ‘re-story’ their identities and life stories. As such they may contribute to the formation, shaping or reinforcement of desistance narratives and non-offending identities
Summary
To desist from offending, research suggests individuals need to construct a non-offending identity, one incompatible with offending behaviour and consistent with future prosocial aspirations, which coherently accounts for past offending (Giordano, Cernkovich, & Rudolph, 2002; Maruna, 2001; Rocque, Posick, & Paternoster, 2016). Research on sexual offending highlights denial may function to maintain a person’s self-presentation so they are not ostracised (Blagden, Winder, Gregson, & Thorne, 2014) Understood in this way, accounting for behaviours can be treated as building blocks of a broader narrative identity, a way of constructing a person’s character. Waldram (2010) notes practitioners use the concept of cognitive distortions to construct client identities to fit with treatment programme aims, contrasting clients’ autobiographical narratives People arrange their narratives to manage responsibility for their offending behaviour, consistent with desistance narratives (Auburn & Lea, 2003). Our analysis explores how narratives of a ‘core self’ and situational accounts for offending, consistent with desistance narratives found in research interviews, are constructed in interactions during a groupwork programme addressing sexual offending
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