In their own words: How and why crime occurs in the autobiographical narratives of offenders

This project is motivated by an interest in how and why crime occurs from the perspective of offenders. Grounded in sociology of crime and particularly narrative criminology, the aim of the project is to examine how the perpetrators of petty, economic, and political crime make sense of their criminal action in their autobiographical narratives. We assume that comparing autobiographical narratives of different types of offenders in a socio-cultural context that has been rather excluded from narrative criminological research will allow for expanding the existing knowledge on the role of life stories in criminal action. The research is based on the method of narrative interviewing, supplemented with the procedure of life history calendar as adapted to qualitative research to increase the quality of the retrospective longitudinal data. Research participants will be recruited using three channels: NGOs, the Probation and Mediation Service and the Prison Service. The main outputs will be five published papers (3x Jimp, 1x Jsc, 1x Jost).