Desistance habitus: Strategically Using experience in practice

Abstract

This article introduces the forward-thinking concept of desistance habitus. The analysis and approach are situated within an auto-ethnographical embodied insider experience of navigating both persistent criminality and the revolving door of incarceration through to the transition into employment within statutory youth justice services. The auto-ethnographic analysis is posited within Bourdieu's conceptual frameworks of habitus, capital, field, and doxa to analyse the relational dynamic that underpins the axiomatic understanding of many peer mentors when they work with mentees in the criminal justice system. It is argued through lived experience that these constructs provide an innovative approach to explore how legitimacy is obtained through the strategic use of habitus within the relational dynamic between those involved in the criminal justice system – persistent offenders – and criminal justice professionals who have been exposed to similar lived experiences of persistent crime and punishment. This method of analysis is lacking within the limited criminological investigation that has taken place on peer mentors in criminal justice practice. The data suggests that both street and carceral experiences can engender legitimacy and credibility which generates the ability to promote desistance pathways as a strategic tool within criminal justice practice.