Been a heavy life : stories of violent men / Lois Presser.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Presser, Lois.

Series:

Critical Perspectives in Criminology

Critical perspectives in criminology

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Violence in men.

Abusive men.

Criminal behavior.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (202 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, c2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In this groundbreaking work, Lois Presser investigates the life stories of men who have perpetrated violence. She applies insights from across the academy to in-depth interviews with men who shared their accounts of how they became the people we most fear--those who rape, murder, assault, and rob, often repeatedly. Been a Heavy Life provides the discipline of criminology with two crucial frameworks: one for critically evaluating the construction of offenders' own stories, and one for grasping the cultural meta-narratives that legitimize violence. For social scientists generally, this book offers a vivid demonstration of just how dynamic and contingent self-narratives are.

Contents:

Self and story

Offender identities, offender narratives

Thinking about research effects

Research methods when research is being researched

Reform narratives : return of the good self

Stability narratives : never a bad self

Elastic narratives : creative integration

Tales of heroic struggle

The situated construction of narratives

The power of stories.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [161]-178) and index.

ISBN:

9786613895615

9781283583169

128358316X

9780252092183

025209218X

OCLC:

811410007