Desistance among sex offenders: Narratives of men convicted for sexual offenses against children in Belgium
This study analyses the narratives of 19 Belgian men convicted for sexual offenses against children, who, after being in custody, have returned to live in society. The theoretical vantage point is Maruna’s (2001) identity theory of desistance, in which narratives following a redemption script are seen as a way to reconcile past misdoings with the present conventional self. Rather than a redemption script however, the men interviewed in the current study seem to employ a ‘behavioral script’: a storyline in which identity and behavior are strictly separated, but which nevertheless recognizes a continuous risk for recidivism. We interpret this behavioral script as an attempt to facilitate re-integration in the community in the absence of a redemption narrative that can be convincingly told in the Belgian context by those who committed sexual offenses against children.