When Seeking Revenge, Dig Two Graves… Reconciling Trauma with Negative Cognitive Schemas in Pathways of Criminal Desistance

• In Event: Narrating the Life Course and the Process of Desistance

Abstract

The evolution and refinement of a narrative identity approach to criminal desistance underscores the importance of examining “storied self concepts” (Maruna, 2001) and the link between criminal behavior and the subjective autobiographies individuals fashion for themselves. Collectively, this work suggests that cognitive schemas and identity change are critical to explanations of “going straight”. Less well understood, however, is how experiences with victimization and trauma are woven into self-narratives, and the implications of these cognitive schemas for criminal desistance and/or persistence. The present study endeavors to shed light on the linkages among traumatic life events, identity construction and criminal behavior among a sample of men who experienced the Bosnian war and genocide (1992-1995) in early childhood. Drawing from qualitative in-depth interviews with 16 male Bosnian refugees and nationals with a history of violent behavior, I examine the following questions: How do men exposed to violence, human suffering and physical destruction in childhood frame their own experiences with war? What are the implications of these cognitive schemas for identity construction and criminal desistance/persistence over the life course?

Author

• Stephanie M. DiPietro, University of Missouri - St. Louis