STORIES OF VIOLENT MEN: DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTION OF OFFENDER IDENTITIES

STORIES OF VIOLENT MEN: DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTION OF OFFENDER IDENTITIES

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: PRESSER, LOIS BETH
Language:English
Published: University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK 2002
Subjects:
identity
narratives
violence
masculinity
qualitative research
Online Access:http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1026504310
id ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-ucin1026504310
record_format oai_dc
spelling ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-ucin10265043102021-08-03T06:08:48Z STORIES OF VIOLENT MEN: DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTION OF OFFENDER IDENTITIES PRESSER, LOIS BETH identity narratives violence masculinity qualitative research This dissertation considers how men who have perpetrated violence talk about themselves and explores how the interview enters into and shapes such talk. The research is based on qualitative interviews with 28 men who committed assault, robbery, driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI), rape and/or murder. The dissertation probes the men's identities, on the view that identity is best understood in narrative form - a perspective that has circulated from literary studies to the social sciences.In each of the narratives the narrator was portrayed as morally decent. It was the protagonists depicted in the narratives who were criticized. Two central narrative themes emerged, both oriented toward the global purpose of accounting for one's deviance. These concerned (1) whether one's moral self has changed over time or has been relatively stable; and (2) the heroic struggles that have comprised one's life. Some men claimed to have journeyed from essential goodness to moral decline and back to goodness. Yet the majority of the men presented a stable moral self, one that was generally decent throughout the life course. Claims of consistent moral decency strained plausibility in the face of past violence. For this reason, such claims demanded the use of various tactics for improving coherence. All of the narrators talked about their lives as oriented around some heroic struggle. The protagonist was depicted as a lone warrior battling internal and external foes. The struggle against criminal justice authority was particularly common and tended to overshadow all other struggles described by the narrator. Narration was shown to be a project that actively involves narrator and audience. As such, the research interviews themselves were sites of identity construction. Research participants actively used the interview as a resource for narrating the trajectories and struggles that contribute to identity. The dissertation suggests that identities are partly shaped in and by face-to-face interaction including the research interview. The research points the way to identity reconstruction through work on narratives, for the sake of reducing violent action. 2002-09-16 English text University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1026504310 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1026504310 restricted--full text not available online This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.
collection NDLTD
language English
sources NDLTD
topic identity
narratives
violence
masculinity
qualitative research
spellingShingle identity
narratives
violence
masculinity
qualitative research
PRESSER, LOIS BETH
STORIES OF VIOLENT MEN: DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTION OF OFFENDER IDENTITIES
author PRESSER, LOIS BETH
author_facet PRESSER, LOIS BETH
author_sort PRESSER, LOIS BETH
title STORIES OF VIOLENT MEN: DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTION OF OFFENDER IDENTITIES
title_short STORIES OF VIOLENT MEN: DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTION OF OFFENDER IDENTITIES
title_full STORIES OF VIOLENT MEN: DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTION OF OFFENDER IDENTITIES
title_fullStr STORIES OF VIOLENT MEN: DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTION OF OFFENDER IDENTITIES
title_full_unstemmed STORIES OF VIOLENT MEN: DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTION OF OFFENDER IDENTITIES
title_sort stories of violent men: discursive construction of offender identities
publisher University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK
publishDate 2002
url http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1026504310
work_keys_str_mv AT presserloisbeth storiesofviolentmendiscursiveconstructionofoffenderidentities
_version_ 1719431649403338752

Similar Items