The Falling Back Men Turn 30: Desistance and Subjective Perceptions of Adulthood and Masculinity

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

Abstract

Although much is made of the “boomerang” generation of Millennials, we know that delayed adulthood is a privilege that poor adolescents of color never enjoyed. Instead, their teen years were typically characterized by precocious adulthood, or early adoption of adult roles, which were sometimes facilitated by criminal involvement. As they age and consider the viability of longer-term criminal careers, men may work to negotiate new pathways toward adult masculine status. Desistance, then, may actually be subjectively experienced as a step backward toward childhood if they cannot establish financial autonomy legally and must instead depend on family members and romantic partners to survive. This paper revisits the men of Falling Back (2013), an ethnographic account of juvenile offenders who were incarcerated and struggled to desist from offending and adopt adult masculine roles after their return. Interviews with these men, who were 17-19 at the start of the study and are now 30, encourage them to reflect on their lives and explore the relationship between adulthood, masculinity and crime involvement. A special focus is on (in)stability in domains such as employment and housing and their identification of potential “hooks for change” toward desistance, particularly those that failed to work as planned.

Author

• Jamie J. Fader, Temple University