ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an in-depth case study of one participant named Darren to provide a whole life narrative of an individual man with an extremely violent biography. Darren's life history provides a series of important analytical threads in relation to the biographies and experiences of other men who participated in the ethnographic fieldwork. The chapter through exploring Darren's life history detects several reasons for his persistent involvement in violence which are permeated by varying motivations such as desire for thrills, excitement and a 'buzz' feature strongly, as does a sense of identity. Violence is something to which he can make recourse with little restraint and a minimal amount of genuine critical reflection. Darren's story presents a highly complex picture of one man's biography, identity and his relationship to interpersonal violence across his life course. The complexity of his life course and evident subjectivity alerts some of the limitations of existing criminological/sociological theory that has developed to explain male violence.
