“I Used to Be an Offender—Now I'm a Defender”: Positive Psychology Approaches in the Facilitation of Posttraumatic Growth in Offenders

Abstract

This study identifies positive psychology concepts and interventions in an offender rehabilitation program in South Africa. The concepts and interventions are cross-referenced to the literature and are found to conform to the principles of the good livesdesistance model (Laws & Ward, 2011). The study uses inductive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) to assess the impact of the program on fourteen ex-offenders and proposes an answer to the question, “What does desistance look like?” (Maruna, 2001). In this study it appears that desistance may be related to posttraumatic growth (Tedeschi, 2011), and this raises the possibility that rehabilitation programs that encourage posttraumatic growth could be effective in facilitating desistance. Further research is recommended into programs that use positive psychology interventions and posttraumatic growth methods due to the fact that existing valid programs may be at risk of being rejected by authorities who use the “what works” and risks need responsivity model (Bonta & Andrews, 2007) as a benchmark.