Pygmalion in the reintegration process: Desistance from crime through the looking glass
2004; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 10; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/10683160410001662762
ISSN1477-2744
AutoresShadd Maruna, Thomas P. LeBel, Nick Mitchell, Michelle Naples,
Tópico(s)Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance
ResumoAbstract The study of desistance from crime has come of age in recent years, and there are now several, competing theories to account for the ability of long-term offenders to abstain from criminal behavior. Most prominently, recent explanations have borrowed elements from informal social control theory, differential association theory and cognitive psychology. In the following, we argue that labeling theory may be a neglected factor in understanding the desistance process. Drawing on interview data collected as part of a study of an offender reintegration program, we illustrate how the idea of the “looking-glass self-concept” and others is a useful metaphor in understanding the process of rehabilitation or recovery in treatment programs. Keywords: DesistanceLabelingLooking-Glass SelfPersonal VoucherCertificationRedemption Ritual Notes While we present these data in terms of “counselors” and “clients”, these artificial labels break down in actual practice. The treatment program we looked at borrows much of its structure from the therapeutic community and self-help model of treatment. Therefore, clients often act as counselors for one another in a peer-support structure. Similarly, almost all of the counselors we spoke to (with two exceptions) were themselves recovering persons, some of whom had been through the treatment program we are evaluating. Some of these so-called “wounded healers” spoke of “rehabilitation” in terms of their own experiences, rather than their work as practitioners.
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