Abstract
Queer criminology has primarily focused on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people as victims and perpetrators of crime, as well as on the criminalization of non-heterosexual practices. In this article, we contribute to the emerging discussions on how queer theory can be used in relation to criminological research by exploring desistance processes from a queer temporality perspective. Desistance research emphasizes how and why individuals cease offending and is often guided by a teleology in which individuals are expected to mature and develop new, non-criminal identities. Work on queer temporality, in contrast, has developed thinking that destabilizes chronology and troubles normative life trajectories. In this article, we draw on queer temporality perspectives, particularly the concepts of chrononormativity and afterwardsness, in analysing narratives of young men who have used sexual violence against women partners in Sweden. We demonstrate how criminal identities may develop in retrospect, after desisting, and that identity and behaviour may not necessarily go together.
Highlights
There has been an upsurge in criminological research informed by queer perspectives (Ball, 2016; Buist and Lenning, 2015; Dwyer et al, 2015; Peterson and Panfil, 2014)
We contribute to the queer criminological project by making use of queer temporality theorizing in relation to desistance from sexual intimate partner violence (IPV)
Our analysis of narratives submitted to a feminist antiviolence campaign suggests that sexual violence tends to be described chrononormatively, as something that belongs to a previous immature masculinity
Summary
There has been an upsurge in criminological research informed by queer perspectives (Ball, 2016; Buist and Lenning, 2015; Dwyer et al, 2015; Peterson and Panfil, 2014). Queer criminological research has explored, for instance, intimate partner violence (IPV) in the context of queer lives (Ristock, 2011). Another central issue concerns the prohibition and regulation of same-sex sexuality and gender nonconformity (Buist and Lenning, 2015). As Ball (2014, 2016) points out, queer criminology could benefit from more engagement with the concerns of queer theory in deconstructing presumably stable and orderly categorizations of identity
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