Desistance Upon Release From Prison: Narratives of Tragedy, Irony, Romance and Comedy

Emma Villman

The British Journal of Criminology, 2024, vol. 64, issue 3, 693-709

Abstract: Desistance research has largely revolved around the concepts of persistence in and desistance from crime, missing what happens between these two poles. The study uses longitudinal interview data from Finnish people in prison (N = 22) before and after release to elucidate the narrative development between the positions of persistence and desistance. Taking a narrative criminological approach, the article explores how the genres of romance, tragedy, irony and comedy are adopted in accounts of desistance. It challenges a static understanding of desistance, arguing that desistance narratives are more diverse than previously understood: rooted in identity, enduring the unforeseen and restricted by unfavourable realities. The findings suggest that different narrative genres give important insights into how individuals attempting to desist from crime perceive their agency.

Keywords: desistance; narrative; prison; longitudinal; interview (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/bjc/azad055 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:crimin:v:64:y:2024:i:3:p:693-709.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The British Journal of Criminology is currently edited by Eamonn Carrabine

More articles in The British Journal of Criminology from Centre for Crime and Justice Studies Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().