Aboriginal people are over-represented in prison in Australia, being 13 times more likely to be incarcerated than non-Indigenous people. Repeat offenders make up a high proportion of the Aboriginal prison population, yet most repeat offenders eventually cease offending or desist from crime. Why do they stop? The process of desistance is complex, non-linear and varies between individuals. Few studies of desistance examine the context, particularly the cultural context, of desisters and desistance.

This presentation reports on PhD research that used anthropological and ethnographic approaches to present and analyse the life narratives of Aboriginal men from north-western New South Wales who have been repeat offenders and are now ‘going good’ (i.e. have ceased offending). Concepts of agency (and its temporal orientations), cultural schemas and figured worlds are applied. The stories of the early lives of participants and the views of community members paint the backdrop of offence, desistance, identity formation and re-formation. Motivating cultural schemas of fatherhood, life partnership, committed kin and respected man are found to operate in the initiation of desistance as men consider ontological security and extricate themselves from the figured world of repeat offender. The interplay of contingency and capacity is critical in the maintenance of desistance, with shortfalls in the individual’s capacity sometimes being bolstered by spousal and family support.

Kate Sullivan is a doctoral scholar at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research.