Shame, Integration and Non-Integration of Sexual Violence Perpetration in the Self-Narratives of Young, Norwegian Men

• In Event: Narrative Criminology #3: Time, Shame and Stigma in the Narratives of Men Who Have Sexually Offended

Abstract

Integrating harmdoing into a self-narrative can be especially difficult when the harmful act is a sexual violation, carrying particular condemnation and stigma to its perpetrators. Meanwhile, making meaning of harmdoing often entails efforts to consider such integration, perhaps especially during imprisonment, responding to the expectations of a rehabilitative prison regime. Hence, the question of self-narrative non-/integration of harmful acts, we argue, is central for people who have done sexual harm to others. We present a self-narrative analysis of qualitative interviews with 17 young men (18-25) who have sexually violated another person. Our analysis highlights the narrative strategies they employ to figure out which place their sexually violating acts may (or may not) have in their developing self-narrative, with particular attention to expressions of shame and shamefulness. Maruna and Roy (2007) critically discussed ‘knifing off’ as a conceptualization of the separating of harmful acts from self-narratives, and how this might be useful to understand the relationship between self-narratives and desistance from future crime. ‘Knifing off’ is our point of departure to understand narrative strategies for non-/integration of harmdoing, and management of shame. We conclude by discussing how self-narrativization in the aftermath of sexual violation perpetration may be connected to desistance processes.

Authors

• Anja Emilie Kruse, University of Oslo, Norway

• Hannah Helseth, Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS)

• Mari Todd-Kvam, Uppsala University, Sweden

• Carolina Överlien, Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS)