Making Good: The Experience of Hope for Offenders Who are Desisting from Crime.

Source: (2010) Thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Science in Applied Psychology. University of Calgary.

This study explored the personal hope narratives of men who are desisting from crime.
Six men on parole and living in the community were interviewed using semi-structured
interviews. The narrative texts were thematically analyzed using hermeneutic
phenomenological inquiry. Co-researchers shared descriptions of their emotions, thoughts, behaviours, and relationships that comprised their lived experience of hope as it related to desistance from crime. Four main themes of hope emerged from the data, namely, hope is reconstructing the self, hope is receiving professional help, hope is found in relationships, and hope is creating meaning in life. These themes do not stand in isolation from each other but rather contribute to an overall understanding of the coreseachers’ hope as they strive for better lives. Consideration is given to the implications arising from this inquiry for correctional programming, counselling practice, and future research. (Excerpt).