In and Out of Criminality and Substance Abuse : Life Stories

• Many would agree that desistance from crime and substance abuse is a process and not a one-time event. In order to enhance the understanding of this process, a small number of interviews were conducted to listen to the subjective voices of individuals that have been through the hazards of trying to repeatedly leave a life of crime and substance abuse. Men and women in the ages between 20-50 yrs. of age were asked to narrate their own life stories. The purpose of the study was to investigate the lives of people with repeated substance abuse and criminal behavior. Semi-structured interviews were used in order to give the narrators the freedom of conveying freely their life story and yet giving the interviewer opportunity to ask about and thus cover aspects of their lives known in the literature as risk factors to develop antisocial behavior. The subjects were recruited by the general manager together with a psychiatric consultant at a treatment center for repeated and hard to treat individuals with sever substance abuse problems and criminal behavior. Results will convey both the power and challenges of individual perceptions on family and social bonds and utilization of health care.

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