Self-Narratives of Desisting Sex Offenders: Where are the Redemption Scripts?

• In Event: Desistance from Sexual Offending

Abstract

Research on desistance from crime among ‘ordinary’ offenders has identified patterns in the stories individuals use to account for what they have done and explain how they have changed. These personal stories, sometimes referred to as ‘redemption scripts,’ draw upon widely shared cultural narratives about crime, punishment and atonement. This paper explores the self-narratives of a sample of individuals rarely explored in the desistance literature: individuals who have convicted sexual crimes against children in the past. We found that these individuals often struggled to narrate their experiences in convincing and coherent ways, as traditional ‘redemption scripts’ often do not match the circumstances of their offending. We argue that those convicted of sex offending lack the wider cultural narratives available for individuals accused of other types of crime and this impacts their ability to develop positive self-identities for themselves upon release from prison.

Author

• Shadd Maruna, Rutgers University