ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I compare how participants conceptualised their past offending and desistance from crime. The objective was to draw conclusions about the construction of identities across societies in processes of desistance, when the cultural attitude around offenders varies. I start by comparing participants’ narratives of past offending, outlining shared ‘cultural scripts’, and the social ‘design’ of an offender label in each country. I then explain how social-structural factors were woven into participants’ self-perceptions and sense of identity. Thereafter, I turn to narratives of desistance, and explore how their sense of identity informed how participants sought to desist and agency. The comparative lens unveiled some of the key mechanisms driving participants’ agency while seeking to desist and the interaction between identity and society.
