The Professional Ex-: An Alternative for Exiting the Deviant Career

Abstract

Research on persons exiting deviance has centered on identifying the processes where-by they abandon the behaviors, ideologies, and identities associated with their specific career by replacing them with more conventional lifestyles and identities. This study suggests that relinquishing the behaviors and lifestyles associated with a particular deviant career does not always imply total abandonment of a deviant identity. The central tenets of Ebaugh's (1988) model of role exit are applied and adapted to provide an alternative conceptualization of exiting deviance. Drawing on data gathered through introspection and open-end interviews with 35 professional ex-s currently employed in a variety of community, state, and private institutions providing treatment to individuals with drug, alcohol, and/or eating disorder problems, four central stages of this specific exit process are explicated: emulation of one's personal therapist, the call to a career in counseling, status-set realignment, and credentialization. Preliminary analysis suggests that professionalizing rather than abandoning a deviant identity facilitates exiting deviance.