Making Good: How Ex-Convicts Reform and Rebuild Their Lives

by Shadd Maruna

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Editorial Reviews
Product Description
Can hardened criminals really reform? "Making Good" provides resounding proof that the answer is yes. This book provides a fascinating narrative analysis of the lives of repeat offenders who, by all statistical measures, should have continued on the criminal path but instead have created lives of productivity and purpose. This examination of the phenomenology of "making good" includes an encyclopedic review of the literature on personal reform as well as a practical guide to the use of narratives in offender counseling and rehabilitation.The author's research shows that criminals who desist from crime have constructed powerful narratives that aided them in making sense of their pasts, finding fulfillment in productive behaviors, and feeling in control of their future. Borrowing from the field of narrative psychology, Maruna argues that to truly understand offenders, we must understand the stories that they tell - and that in turn this story-making process has the capacity to transform lives. "Making Good" challenges some of the cherished assumptions of various therapy models for offenders and supports new paradigms for offender rehabilitation. This groundbreaking book is a must read for criminologists, forensic psychologists, lawyers, rehabilitation counselors, or anyone interested in the generative process of change.

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Average Customer Review: 5 out of 5 stars

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5 out of 5 stars

Bursts stereotypes with empirical data , 2006-11-01
Winner of a 2001 American Society of Criminology Award for Most Outstanding Contribution To Criminology, this meticulously researched book describes the process through which hard-core criminal recidivists desist from crime to lead productive lives.

As the pendulum begins to turn from a crazed rush to incarcerate, there is more and more interest in the topic of prisoner re-entry. What can help criminals turn their lives around and become productive citizens? This book is a great starting point for answering this complex question.

9 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5 out of 5 stars

A reader, 2002-03-05
One of my goals in life is to help inmates make there lives positives ones. This is my first book I've read on criminal reform and I am absolutely in love with it (and very lucky to find it). It has also been a learning experience for my life (a desisting one). `Shadd Maruna has written a classic in my library. Looking forward to any follow-ups!

If you read this Dr. Maruna, thank you for your book. It will help me when I get out of college.

Along with this I currently just picked up "Inside Rikers" by Jen Wynn (sp?). For all others interested in other titles.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5 out of 5 stars "Making Good" makes good sense!, 2001-12-06
Dr. Maruna shines the bright lights of objectivity, intellectual courage, and scientific inquiry, into a dimly understood subject, one which too many people would rather ignore: Specifically, why is criminal recidivism so commonplace, what are the social policies and practices that discourage rehabilitation, what beliefs about criminal behavior do we need to re-examine, how do some offenders manage to reconstruct their lives in spite of all the barriers, and what should we be learning from them. He doesn't preach, he doesn't harangue, he just presents the facts in a convincing and very readable manner, and enlivens the text with a variety of case histories and interviews. Sure to be appreciated by the general public as well as behavioral scientists and correctional experts, "Making Good..." is destined to be a classic in its field.

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