Desistance and Identity Repair: Redemption Narratives as Resistance to Stigma: Table 1

Abstract

Recent research has examined the role of the narrative construction of identity in desistance from criminal offending and substance use. The narrative identity theory of desistance was developed with a population of male offenders. The present analysis explores the applicability of the theory to a sample of substance-using pregnant women and mothers, a highly stigmatized and increasingly criminalized group. The analysis of in-depth interview data reveals that desisting women constructed narrative identities that emphasized their moral agency and resisted the stigmatizing discourse surrounding substance-using mothers. The results support the narrative identity theory of desistance by demonstrating its applicability to a population for which the theory was not specifically designed and have implications for future research on identity theories of desistance as well as offender supervision practices.