Desistance in process? Narrative selves and turning point stories by youth in detention.

• In Event: Juvenile Offenders and Justice: Mass Incarceration, Plea Bargaining, Desistance, and Mortality

Abstract

This paper explores turning point narratives by youth in Swedish detention homes who are in the midst of a potential desistence process. Drawing on narrative criminology and desistance research, the purpose is to study narratives as a way to understand criminality and the processes leading an individual away from crime. Desistance has been conceptualized as a process, and it has been suggested that it might be understood as consisting of two phases, primary and secondary desistance, the latter being where the individual has reached a more permanent state of desistance. Studies of secondary desistance have been favored over primary desistance, and the present paper will contribute by exploring primary desistance in terms of young detainees’ turning point stories and identity constructions.
The data corpus consists of over 900 stories written by youth in detention. Informed by narrative theory and methodology, the analyses explore, in detail, how the youth construct turning point stories: which factors spiked a change, and what has changed. Previous research on desistance from crime shows that identity change is an essential aspect in the process, therefor the analyses also explore constructions of identity, the one that was, and the one that now has changed.

Authors

• Anna Gradin Franzén, Stockholm University

• Mats Borjesson, Stockholm University