Hallett Michael, McCoy J Stephen
University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL, USA
Prisoners of Christ, Jacksonville, FL, USA.
Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol. 2015 Jul;59(8):855-72. doi: 10.1177/0306624X14522112. Epub 2014 Feb 16.
This article examines the life-history narratives of 25 successful ex-offenders professing Christianity as the source of their desistance. Unstructured in-depth life-history interviews from adult male desisters affirm use of a "feared self" and "cognitive shifts" regarding perceptions of illegal behavior. "Condemnation scripts" and "redemption narratives," however, differ radically from those uncovered in previous research. Stories of behavior change and identity transformation achieved through private religious practice and energetic church membership dominate the narratives. Findings suggest there are diverse phenomenologies of desistance and that by more narrowly tailoring research to explore subjectivities in the desistance process, important discrepancies in perceptions of agency and structure are revealed. Three prominent desistance paradigms--Making Good, Cognitive Transformation, and Identity Theory--are used to examine the narratives.
本文考察了25名成功的刑满释放人员的生活史叙事，他们宣称基督教是其停止犯罪的根源。对成年男性停止犯罪者进行的无结构化深度生活史访谈证实，他们在对非法行为的认知上使用了“恐惧的自我”和“认知转变”。然而，“谴责脚本”和“救赎叙事”与先前研究中发现的截然不同。通过私人宗教修行和积极参与教会活动实现行为改变和身份转变的故事主导了这些叙事。研究结果表明，停止犯罪存在多种现象学，通过更狭义地定制研究以探索停止犯罪过程中的主观性，可以揭示出在能动性和结构认知方面的重要差异。运用三种突出的停止犯罪范式——改过自新、认知转变和身份理论——来审视这些叙事。
