A running start: Desistance from crime, Zatopekian pain, and embodied rehabilitation

• In Event: Plenary 1 - Thursday

Abstract

This paper looks at the role long-distance running may play in individual change processes. Based on interviews with 12 former offenders who share an interest in running, I ask how endurance training may work as an engine or a catalyst for desistance from crime processes. The analysis shows that race goals and a training plan may provide a much-needed sense of structure and predictability that may help the desistance process move forward. Regular training may help former offenders cope with addiction and the risk of reverting to old drug and/or alcohol use habits. Running may also help former offenders communicate or signal to others that they have changed, contributing to recognition and tertiary desistance. Serious endurance training always involves a measure of pain, however. For all runners, it is vital to find ways to maximize positive (or ‘Zatopekian’) pain while avoiding negative, injury-related, pain. Several participants talked about the positive aspects of running-related pain. They also described how they use negative experiences from their former lives as a pain management technique. Finally, introducing the term ‘embodied rehabilitation’, we argue that desistance from crime, identity change, and physical/corporeal change might combine and mutually strengthen each other, driving the desistance process forward.

Author

• Thomas Ugelvik, University of Oslo