"He Inspired Me to Turn My Life Around": A Qualitative Inquiry of Peer Mentoring to Leverage Desistance

Background and Purpose: Peer mentoring programs often use so-called “credible messengers” or “experts by experience” to support individuals in early desistance, and/or during re-entry, to break away from street life and violence. Credible messengers are individuals who themselves have experience of street violence, are in later stages of desistance from crime, and mentoring is an intrinsic part of their new identities. Credible messengers often operate independently of law enforcement and can more easily gain trust in marginalized inner-city communities impacted by violence. Research exploring how credible messengers, using mentoring strategies, can support desistance is scarce. Furthermore, it is unclear how credible messengers use their own “street background” to promote desistance among people engaged in violent crime. This study explored how credible messengers, with sustained desistance, used their own narratives and identity shifts to mentor and promote desistance among at-risk youth and young adults.

Methods: This study was conducted in North Philadelphia, PA. Research participants were recruited from Cure Violence Philadelphia. Cure Violence Philadelphia is a credible messenger program designed to reduce gun violence by use of mentoring. The study employed a narrative framework and used semi-structured interviews and focus groups. First, we recruited 12 credible messengers, with sustained desistance, employed by Philadelphia Cure Violence and conducted 3 focus groups. Second, we recruited and interviewed 40 young people at-risk from the Cure Violence Philadelphia’s caseloads. All 40 were participants who expressed a desire to desist from crime. Thematic analysis was used to examine (1) the strategies used by credible messengers to promote desistance among young people at-risk, and (2) how young people at-risk used peer mentoring as leverage to leave street life.

Results: The comparison of narrative interviews with peer mentors and those with mentees identified several common themes around redemption, empowerment and caring responsibilities, suggesting mentees have identified with and adopted several of the key messages of the mentors. In short, mentees’ nascent desistance scripts reflected closely the established self-narratives of their mentors.

Conclusions and Implications: This thematic analysis suggests credible messengers as peer mentors may have a distinct (and probably unique) proficiency in impacting the narratives utilized to make sense of their participants chaotic lives. These advantages likely could be leveraged to extend the types of support that peer mentors offer.