The alternatives to violence project: using positive criminology as a framework for understanding rehabilitation and reintegration.

Alternative Therapies

April 2021

Full Citation

Petrich, D., & Morrison, B. (2015). The alternatives to violence project: using positive criminology as a framework for understanding rehabilitation and reintegration. Offenders no more: an interdisciplinary restorative justice dialogue, 247-266. Retrieved from http://ovidsp.ovid.com/ovidweb.cgi?T=JS&PAGE=reference&D=psyc13&NEWS=N&…

Abstract

The goal of this chapter is to provide further understanding of the programmes and processes that best facilitate rehabilitation, re-entry and desistance from crime. To frame our argument, we draw on existing literature in the fields of positive psychology, positive criminology, desistance, narrative theory and rehabilitation to illustrate how restorative correctional practices can best meet the needs of prisoners. The focus of this chapter is on the results of an exploratory research project that aimed to understand how prisoners made retrospective meaning of a volunteer-led prison programme, the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP), as playing a role in change processes in their lives. A phenomenological approach was used to interview and analyse data obtained from a sample of parolees who had taken part in the programme during their incarceration. The results presented here indicate that through the use of a restorative pedagogy and the development of strong interpersonal connections, participants in the AVP developed a sense of agency over their own lives; trust in others; hopes and goals for a positive future; resilience to an institutional culture of violence; pride and sense of achievement; self-awareness; and a strong desire to engage in generative pursuits. These findings are indicative of a need to move away from a narrow conception of correctional interventions as risk-focused and toward models that support the realization of basic human needs. Further, the crucial role of de-labelling processes in rehabilitation and reintegration is highlighted through the value participants placed on the connections they had developed with programme volunteers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)