Can hardened criminals really reform? "Making Good" provides resounding proof that the answer is yes. This book provides a fascinating narrative analysis of the lives of repeat offenders who, by all statistical measures, should have continued on the criminal path but instead have created lives of productivity and purpose. This examination of the phenomenology of "making good" includes an encyclopedic review of the literature on personal reform as well as a practical guide to the use of narratives in offender counseling and rehabilitation.The author's research shows that criminals who desist from crime have constructed powerful narratives that aided them in making sense of their pasts, finding fulfillment in productive behaviors, and feeling in control of their future. Borrowing from the field of narrative psychology, Maruna argues that to truly understand offenders, we must understand the stories that they tell - and that in turn this story-making process has the capacity to transform lives. "Making Good" challenges some of the cherished assumptions of various therapy models for offenders and supports new paradigms for offender rehabilitation. This groundbreaking book is a must read for criminologists, forensic psychologists, lawyers, rehabilitation counselors, or anyone interested in the generative process of change.

Making Good: How Ex-Convicts Reform and Rebuild Their Lives

INTRODUCTION The issue of social rehabilitation and reintegration (hereafter social reintegration2) is mentioned under the third strategy target of the EU Action Plan 2000–2004. The third EU strategy target is to 'substantially increase the number of successfully treated addicts', and point 3.1.3.4 instructs that 'Member States [are] to ensure that adequate attention is paid to social and professional rehabilitation and reintegration of former addicts'. However, social reintegration is also linked to social exclusion, which is mentioned in chapter 2 of the EU Action Plan, where it is stated that 'the EMCDDA [is] to develop indicators on drug-related crime, the availability of illicit drugs (including at street level) and drug-related social exclusion'. For the EMCDDA, social reintegration comes under strategy target four – that is, as a response to social exclusion – however, target two is clearly also relevant. Social exclusion is often perceived as a cause of problem drug use, although many see it as a consequence of problem drug use. We will not elaborate on this further here, except to note that social exclusion and problem drug use are two phenomena that are very closely interlinked and that social reintegration is a possible response to both. The EMCDDA Programme 2, 'Analysis of responses', set out to identify how social reintegration is understood in each Member State and to map the availability of social reintegration facilities in Member States according to these national perceptions. It became evident at an early stage that this would be a complex task, involving extensive data collection, as national reports generally provided insufficient data on this specific subject. eight countries turned out to be difficult to map and so, in February 2002, the EMCDDA launched a call for tender for a project, 'Mapping social reintegration services in EU countries'. 3 The aim of this project was to describe the state of the art of social reintegration in the following eight countries: The research specifications, to investigate 'the state of the art of social reintegration', suggested that the following should be identified for each of the eight countries: 1 Other contributors will be mentioned in the respective chapters. 2 Our country studies so far have shown that the term 'rehabilitation' is used ambiguously across Europe – from low-threshold refuges, to normal treatment, to actual reintegration into society. For this reason, we shall use the term 'social reintegration' in this report, as this is used much more …

European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction

Objective The goal of this review was to determine the direction of associations between SES and health behaviors during the period of adolescence. Method We searched the PsychInfo and Pubmed databases for studies that measured the association between SES and cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, marijuana use, diet, and physical activity in adolescents between 10- and 21-years old. Results Associations between SES and health behaviors conformed to two patterns. First, low SES was associated with poorer diets, less physical activity, and greater cigarette smoking. Second, there was no clear pattern of associations between SES and alcohol consumption or marijuana use. Conclusion Results from this review indicate that, although some associations between SES and health behaviors exist during adolescence, the associations are not as robust as those in adulthood. Efforts to curb poor diet, inactivity, and smoking behaviors should target low SES adolescents, whereas efforts to curb teen drinking and marijuana use may be useful across the SES spectrum.

Socioeconomic status and health behaviors in adolescence: a review of the literature.

Developments in a number of academic disciplines-the sociology of deviance, criminology, economics, psychology-suggest that it is useful to see criminal behavior not as the result of psychologically and socially determined dispositions to offend, but as the outcome of the offender's broadly rational choices and decisions. This perspective provides a basis for devising models of criminal behavior that (1) offer frameworks within which to locate existing research, (2) suggest directions for new research, (3) facilitate analysis of existing policy, and (4) help to identify potentially fruitful policy initiatives. Such models need not offer comprehensive explanations; they may be limited and incomplete, yet still be "good enough" to achieve these important policy and research purposes. To meet this criterion they need to be specific to particular forms of crime, and they need separately to describe both the processes of involvement in crime and the decisions surrounding the commission of the offense itself. D...

Modeling Offenders' Decisions: A Framework for Research and Policy

An essential companion for students across the social and health sciences, this text provides a wide-ranging coverage of qualitative methods complemented by extended illustration from the array of academic disciplines in which qualitative research is found and employed.


Written in a lively and reader-friendly style, the guide covers a comprehensive range of topics, including:


- a concise definition of the method

- a description of distinctive features

- examples to convey the flavour of a technique or principle

- a critical and reflective evaluation of the method or approach under consideration

- cross references to associated concepts within the dictionary

- a list of key readings

Keywords in Qualitative Methods

Illegal Leisureoffers a unique insight into the role drug use now plays in British youth culture. With half this generation having tried an illicit drug and up to a quarter using drugs regularly, this study explains why, despite parental angst, universal programs and a determined war on drugs, all efforts to ban illegal leisure have failed.

Illegal leisure : the normalization of adolescent recreational drug use

Five key dimensions of normalization are identified: availability/access; drug trying rates; usage rates; accommodating attitudes to ‘sensible’ recreational drug use especially by non users; and degree of cultural accommodation of illegal drug use. A review of recent UK research is provided for each measure.The NW England Longitudinal Study continues to monitor normalization based on the recapture of 465 young adults (in year 2000) of a cohort previously surveyed/interviewed across their adolescence (1991 to 1995).The availability of drugs remains high with over 90% having been in drug offer situations. Accessibility is highest for cannabis, followed by ‘dance drugs’, with cocaine showing the steepest climb. Drug trying rates have risen incrementally from 36 percent at 14 to 76 percent at 22. At 18 over half reported past year drug use and at 22 the rate is unchanged (52 percent). Past month use at 32 percent has declined slightly. Males are now slightly more likely to be drug-involved on all measures. Socio-economic differences are not significant. Cannabis dominates recent usage (average three episodes a month). Half the abstainers have friends who have used cannabis. Nearly two thirds of abstainers held tolerant or approving attitudes of drug takers. Half held different views about different drugs, with cannabis use being most tolerated.The

/pdf/the-normalization-of-sensible-recreational-drug-use-further-147acs5vyr.pdf

The Normalization of ‘Sensible’ Recreational Drug Use Further Evidence from the North West England Longitudinal Study

A comprehensive interdisciplinary exploration of dance drug use in Britain. The authors look at all aspects of drug use, including the contexts in which they are used, effects on health and attitudes to drug use. They also present important policy recommendations.

Dancing on Drugs: Risk, Health and Hedonism in the British Club scene

This article discusses the development of the normalization thesis in respect of monitoring sustained increases in young Britons’ consumption of illicit drugs and alcohol over the past decade. It describes five dimensions of normalization which have been applied in a cluster of studies undertaken by the author, highlighting results from the N.W. England Longitudinal Study showing easy accessibility, high rates of drug trying (76% at 22 years) and long-term recreational drugs careers involving both alcohol and illicit drugs. The social accommodation of ‘sensible’ substance use was apparent amongst most drug abstainers in the cohort who routinely had close friends who used drugs ‘recreationally’. Further cultural acceptance of recreational drug use is described. A sixth dimension – state or government responses to widespread recreational drug use – is introduced and illustrated. The article concludes by emphasizing the negative outcomes associated with recreational poly substance use in terms of personal an...

Normalization as a barometer: Recreational drug use and the consumption of leisure by younger Britons

An anonymous self-report survey of drug use among a cohort of 776 14-15 year olds in North-West England was conducted at the end of 1991, aiming to estimate prevalence and profile users. Six in 10 reported being offered drugs, and 36 per cent to using drugs (20 per cent in the past month). Over half of those offered drugs had tried them. Lifetime prevalence was highest for cannabis (32 per cent), with five other drugs each being used by 10-14 per cent. Three groups identified were cannabis smokers, solvents sniffers, and stimulant/psychedelic (or dance drug) users. The population parameters of drug use were estimated at 33-40 per cent, suggesting up to 200,000 local young adults have used drugs. Most significantly, the proportion of young women being offered and using drugs and the prevalence of drug trying amongst young people in 'middle-class' schools, suggests a substantial social transformation is underway in respect of recreational drug use. The results of this survey confirm a general trend apparent in other British studies. As this cohort is tracked into the mid 1990s, the sociological implications will be significant.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/591497.pdf

Howard Parker

Papers

Illegal leisure : the normalization of adolescent recreational drug use

The Normalization of ‘Sensible’ Recreational Drug Use Further Evidence from the North West England Longitudinal Study

Dancing on Drugs: Risk, Health and Hedonism in the British Club scene

Normalization as a barometer: Recreational drug use and the consumption of leisure by younger Britons

The normalization of recreational drug use amongst young people in north-west England.