Lost. Lost. and Lost: A Narrative Analysis of Desistance in the Context of Parole

Background and Purpose:

Desistance scholars argue that identity transformation is a central component of the processes through which justice-involved individuals terminate a criminal career. Individuals’ ability to craft a credible self-narrative that is incompatible with offending is essential to maintaining desistance in the stressed social context within which many individuals reside after release from prison. In recent decades, parole practices have been oriented around risk assessment, which may serve to reify the criminal identity and interrupt the development of a nonoffending self-narrative. However, research has focused on the impact of normative life events, rather than formal justice interventions, on desistance. The current study explores identity formation in a sample of recently paroled men. The study addresses the following research questions: How do parolees conceptualize their identity with respect to criminality? How do parolees’ identity narratives interact with their intentions related to desistance? What factors distinguish the identity articulated by desistors from that of persistors? How do offenders’ interactions with parole agents serve to support or inhibit the development of a nonoffending identity?

Methods:

Using data from semistructured interviews, this study employed narrative analytic methods (Presser, 2016; Silva, 2016) to explore the ways parole practice served to enhance or disrupt the development of credible desistance narratives. To identify and recruit participants, a random sample of individuals was selected from a list of all men released to parole in the study timeframe. The list was stratified by parole region, in order to obtain a representative, statewide sample. Interviews were conducted at community supervision offices, community correction centers, prisons, or jails. A total of 50 individuals participated in a single, one-hour interview between six and 18 months after release from prison.

Findings:

Results identified the presence of six themes within parolee narratives: Acceptance, Independence, Oriented Normative Values, Resistance, Struggle and Victimization. Parolee narratives often frame incarceration as a turning point, wherein the individual’s motivation to stop offending was enhanced (Soyer, 2014). However, themes identified here characterize parole as a setting where desistance intentions were both enacted and thwarted. In particular, parolees resisted the singular classification of themselves as ‘offenders’ and the subsequent impact on their attempts to reintegrate.

Implications and Conclusions:

This study advanced knowledge of the impact of formal justice interventions on normative desistance processes. In violating normative values, ‘offenders’ have been rendered problematic; parole can be a discursive site wherein they negotiate the spoiled identity of criminal and are permitted, and supported, in the development of an unproblematic identity. However, parole practices that reify the criminal identity may interrupt the formation of a desistance narrative. Constraints upon parolees’ independence have been adopted in the name of public safety, as a means to manage the perceived risk posed by parolees. Similarly, policy has tended to marginalize parolees from normative discourses, through the application of separate behavioral codes that criminalize prosocial behaviors. Findings from this study confirm research suggesting such policies and practices, which limit individuals’ ability to position themselves as normative, may actually inhibit desistance and reintegration and thereby threaten public safety.