Homecomings, Border Encounters and Hospitality: Alfred Shutz's and Jacques Derrida's Contributions to Conceptualizing a Transition from Prison

Abstract

The journey from prison towards desistance from crime is well recognised as challenging. This paper seeks to contribute to the transitions and desistance literature through a discussion of essays by Alfred Shutz and Jacques Derrida that deal with seemingly quite different subjects. Shutz writes of Strangers entering a new society and Homecomers returning; Derrida, of borders, singularity and hospitality. Their points of connection and significance, however, lie in Shutz's and Derrida's emphasis on the relational and what it means to be human. These emphases are highly pertinent to criminological understanding and practice.