Summary
Can hardened criminals really reform? The author uses data from the Liverpool Desistance Study to construct a narrative analysis of the lives of repeat offenders who, by all statistical measures, should have continued on the criminal path but instead have created lives of productivity and purpose. This examination of the phenomenology of "making good" includes a review of the literature on personal reform as well as a practical guide to the use of narratives in offender counseling and rehabilitation. The author's research shows that criminals who desist from crime have constructed powerful narratives that aided them in making sense of their pasts, finding fulfillment in productive behaviors, and feeling in control of their future. Borrowing from the field of narrative psychology, Maruna argues that to truly understand offenders, we must understand the stories that they tell — and that in turn this story-making process has the capacity to transform lives.
Contents
Introduction: the common criminal and us. -- Part I. Dissecting Desistance -- 1. Defining Desistance – 2. The Liverpool Desistance Study.
Part II. Two views of a brick wall – 3. Sample prognosis: dire – 4. Reading from a condemnation script – 5. Making good: the rhetoric of redemption.
Part III. Applied Mythology – 6. Work, generativity, and reform – 7. Mea Culpa: shame, blame, and the core self -- 8. The rituals of redemption.