“Lived Experience”
Criminology
andDesistance from Crime
Prof. Shadd Marunas.maruna@qub.ac.uk@Criminology (Twitter)

What is “Desistance” from Crime?
The long-term abstinence from crimeamong individuals who had previously
engaged in persistent patterns of criminal
offending.
Desistance is a process, even a journey, notan event. The focus is not on any particular“moment” of change, but rather on themaintenance of that change in the face ofa life’s many obstacles and frustrations.

20 Years Down the Road

CO-producing Desistance•Apprenticeship in desistence(mentors, role models)•Someone “saw something in me” that mademe “realise I could achieve something”•Finds an empowering role as helper (not justhelp-recipient)•Change in behaviour formally recognisedand celebrated by others

Phase One: The Shift to Desistance
Changing Lenses in Research

Disrupts criminology’s perception ofso-called “offenders” as somehow
fundamentally different than others
Recognises the desisting person as theexpert on his or her own story andexperience.

Phase 2: Impact on Justice PracticeDesistanceinspiredprogramming(over half of all UK accreditedprogrammes)

“Good LivesModel”
“RehabilitativeCulture”

The Shift to a Desistance Model
Changing Lenses in Practice1) From “What Works?” to “How Does it Work?”
2) From a medical model to a “naturalistic”
model3) From “treatment effects” to relationships
4) From correcting deficits to showcasing
strengths
5) From expert outsiders to the wisdom of‘experts by experience’Wounded Healers: Apprenticeships in
Rehabilitation“Our greatest resource, largely untouched, to aid in therehabilitation of offenders is other offenders. … Only askilful guide can encourage a person to go straight. I
suspect that the best guide is the one who has himself
gone through it” (Eglash, 1958, p. 621).
Folsom Prison Associate Warden once said:“The [ex-prisoner counsellors] tell the men the samethings we’ve been telling them for months. But thedifference is that the inmates listen.” (Eglash, 1958, p.
237).

How “Experts by Experience” Help Others
With such backgrounds, reformed ex-prisoners areliving examples of the transformation that is possible. . . When the going gets tough, it is possible to say,‘He did it, so can I.’ The role model derives
legitimacy from his having traversed the same route.
To expect prisoners to accept role models who have
not had that experience is to expect an atypical,
unusual and treacherous identification. Perhaps only
prisoners are expected to be so unusually responsive
to persons different from themselves(Lofland, 1969, p. 268).

How Helping Others Helps Experts by Experience
From interviews with Prison “Listeners” (Perrin & Blagden, 2014)“When I started, … you kind of see skills in you that you
never knew you had and I’m shocked because like, I
never really regarded myself as being smart to behonest … It’s just something good and I don’t know
about anyone else but I’m just craving for positivity inhere, and to restart my life again and come back agood person into the community. (Andy)Recognition and Rewards“Governors recognise it, staff recognise it, ‘he’s a good
lad he is, he’s one of my Listeners’. Lads come up andthank you … they say ‘Fair play to you that you do stufflike that’. Staff on the wing thank you. You know, myfamily, even friends say ‘I never knew you could dosomething like that’. They’ve seen a different side to me.
(Steve)“When you see [progress] happen it makes you feel
good because you’ve done something good and given
something back. I’m not saying it makes up for the crime
you’ve committed, but you are giving something backand you’re turning something into a positive” (Andy)

What about the world of
research and knowledge
production?

Phase 3: “Lived Experience” Criminology

Nothing About Us Without Us
Activists in the disability rights and neuro-diversity
movements have insisted that in the future there
be “nothing about us without us”("Nihil de nobis, sine nobis") (Charlton, 1998).

Participatory Action ResearchParticipatory research methods inwhich “research participants areregarded as potential collaborators in
the co-production of knowledge andbecome co-researchers” have“fundamentally changed thedynamic of research” (Schubotz,2019: 3).

User Voice UK Our role is to improve rehabilitation...
 ...through collaboration.
 Rehabilitation is possible, and peoplewith convictions can turn their lives
into an active force for good insociety. Rehabilitation is the goal of
all our work, a process which goes
deeper than reducing offending,
although that is an outcome.
“Only Offenders Can Stop Re-Offending”

Who are the Experts on the LivedExperience of Prisoners during thisPandemic?
OR

Shouldn’t Someone Ask the People
in Prison?

The POA’s Version

The Prison Officer’s Association Version

“It is testament to the professionalism, bravery
and dedication of prison staff that we now see acontrolled, well ordered, less violent and morestable prison estate despite the concerns of thecritical few … about how prisoners would react[after being] so used to being unlocked. ... We
also had to contend with the so-called prison‘experts’ who so often take the form of reformgroups or psychologists who have never walked
in our shoes, complaining that human rights had
been breached and we were implementing

Continued“We await the statistical evidence during thelockdown period, but our own initial analysis would
highlight a significant reduction in prisoner on staff
assaults, prisoner on prisoner assaults, including insome prisons a dramatic reduction in self-harm
incidents and a significant reduction in [mentalhealth] referrals.
"The government should listen to the experts inprisons - the staff - who say the situation is now saferand more stable."WHO WE
This is a collaborative
ESRC (Economic and SocialAREResearch Council) funded research project between
Queens University Belfast and User Voice.

User Voice is a charity run by exoffenders. User Voices’ participation
ensures the research is truly Peer Led
at every stage.

Queens University Belfast isinternationally recognised for its
research contributions
in criminology. Queens participation
ensure all aspects of the research meethigh standards and rigor of academicresearch.

OBJECTIVES Develop an innovative participatory research
design that involves prisoners and former
prisoners at every stage of the research fromdesign to dissemination.
 Provide the first systematic overview of theimpact of the unprecedented COVID lockdownin prisons across England and Wales on themental health and well-being of prisoners acrossthe system.

 Provide systematic first-hand evidence that canfeed into the discussion of how to safely
transition prisons from these lockdown
conditions to more rehabilitative cultures.

THE APPROACH
1. QUALITATIVE AND
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCHMETHODS

2. PARTICIPATORY DESIGN
Prisoners and ex-prisoners
involved at every stage

3. PRISONERS TRAINED IN
RESEARCH METHODS
Accredited OCN LEVEL 1
course with certificate

Focus groups

DiariesSurveys

DesignFieldwork

Analysis

OCN London is a not-forprofit awarding organisationthat provides national
qualifications for colleges,
adult education centres,
community groups, training
providers, charities andemployers

WHAT WE’VE DONE
…SO FAR123Interviewed 160
PRISONERS ACROSS 10
PRISONS Conducted 2 focus groups in each

TRAINED 60PEERRESEARCHERS
 Open College Network level 1 or1000+ SURVEYS ARE
CURRENTLY BEINGANALYZEDprison; Bronzefield, Pentonville,
Wormwood Scrubs, Brinsford,
Wakefield, Woodhill, Hewell, FullSutton and Wymott

Forest Bank this week.
Mix of category, location, age &gender.

level 2 qualifications


8 hours of training plus
workbooks to be completed onown.
Responsible for all datacollection
Involved in presentation of datato prison governors•Data entry still in progressAll results available by late
December

Expect an average of 150+
questionnaires completed perprison. However some havecompleted 300+.

Bleak Regime
62% have not had a single in-person visit since the pandemic began.

72% said they were out of cell for an hour or less per day during the first six
months of the Covid pandemic.
57% said they were out of cell for an hour or less per day under their current
regimeJust 1 in 5 agree that lockdown has reduced violence and bullying

Just 7% agree that “This prison is listening to the concerns of residents”
Terrible

Rate the communication about regime changes

24434510671689711Excellent
5 32

68% agree that mental health has never beenworse Deteriorating mental health – depression,

In the last 2 weeks

tension, increased use of medication and selfmedication to cope

 Increase in incidents and/or severity ofself-harmFeeling
depressed
or hopeless

Nearlyevery dayThought better
Feeling nervous/ Trouble falling or off dead/hurting
anxiousstaying asleep
self
20363145

 Higher need for support but none available Diminished use of “prison listeners”(Samaritans) and active prevention of
informal peer support
 Staff not trained to deal with mental health fallout, often punish rather than support themost vulnerable

More thanhalf

1014

16
18
16

Severaldays

24
2718

Not at all
25
15

1852

Ticking Time Bomb of Despair"Many people in this prison are becoming
desperate and losing hope"
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
50

Strongly agree

Agree

DisagreeStrongly disagree

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

Who are the Experts on the LivedExperience of Prisoners during thisPandemic?
OR

Shouldn’t Someone Ask the People
in Prison?

THANKS
Prof. Shadd Maruna@Criminology (Twitter)
Queen’s University Belfast