ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the circumstances, experiences and understandings of the interview participants up until the point they experienced a first prison sentence. It is necessary to emphasise at the outset that the qualitative element of the research programme was not designed to identify or assess specific individual personality traits linked to criminal behaviour. Although early life was generally characterised by poverty, family instability, and lack of achievement at school, as well as exposure to criminogenic environments, the influence of these factors on them was variable. Initially, crime was embraced as a form of play, a means of alleviating the boredom and frustration of life in the family home. The family home is a primary determinant of security, autonomy, well-being and status, a place which sustains self-image and self-expression. It is sometimes argued that criminal behaviour is justified and accepted as normal by many people who live in socially deprived neighbourhoods.
