Drawing on qualitative interviews with eight Swedish ex-criminals, this study examines how former prisoners describes the path in and out of crime, with special interest on their experience of prison as a punitive and rehabilitating intervention. Using a thematic analysis, this study cast light on human agency and will in combination with constraining as well as enabling structures. The study identified multiple constraining structures where the gap between prison and society was a returning constraint pattern in their experience of desistance. The empirical findings shows that, in order to understand how a beneficial desistance process develops, it is necessary to recognise the close interaction between agency and structure. Consequently, well-functioning “bridges” are required to connect the individual’s own will and capacity for change with supportive social structures, both during and after imprisonment.
| Date of Award | 2026-Jun |
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| Original language | Swedish |
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| Supervisor | Hanna Edgren (Supervisor) & Annika Rosén (Examiner) |
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- Higher Education in behavioral science
Det är lätt att ta någons frihet men svårt att ge tillbaka den: En studie om vägen ut ur kriminalitet
Björåker, L. (Author), Johanson, M. (Author), Knutson, I. (Author). 2026-Jun
Student thesis: Bachelor