CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 274Religion, Spirituality, and PsychologyCriminal Justice and Corrections AnalysisIdentity, Memory, and Therapy

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 65 of the 79 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Why God Is Often Found Behind Bars: Prison Conversions and the Crisis of Self-Narrative

Maruna, Shadd, Wilson, Louise, Curran, Kathryn·2006·Research in Human Development
DOI 10.1207/s15427617rhd0302&3_6
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

The jail cell conversion from "sinner" to true believer may be one of the best examples of a "second chance" in modern life, yet the process receives far more attention from the popular media than from social science research. In this article, we explore prisoner conversions from the perspective of narrative psychology. Drawing on 75 original, life story interviews with prisoner "converts," we argue that the conversion narrative "works" as a shame management and coping strategy in the following ways. The narrative creates a new social identity to replace the label of prisoner or criminal, imbues the experience of imprisonment with purpose and meaning, empowers the largely powerless prisoner by turning him into an agent of God, provides the prisoner with a language and framework for forgiveness, and allows a sense of control over an unknown future.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1207/s15427617rhd0302&3_6

Cites

65 of 65 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Citations

Cites

Show all 79 references

Research works printed but not linked: 13

  1. Arnold, J. G. (1987). The yoke of anger. In J. D. Day & W. S. Laufer (Eds.), Crime, values and religion (pp. 211-233). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
  2. Bruner J., 1987, Social Research, 54, 11
  3. Day, J. D. (1987). Methods, morals, and meanings: On psychology, religion and effects. In J. D. Day & W. S. Laufer (Eds.), Crime, values and religion (pp. 234-252). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
  4. Freeman, M. (1993). Rewriting the self. London: Routledge.
  5. Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and self-identity. Cambridge, England: Polity Press.
  6. Hiebert, P. G. (1992). Conversion in Hinduism and Buddhism. In H. N. Malony & S. Southard (Eds.), Handbook of religious conversion (pp. 9-21). Birmingham, AL: Religious Education Press.
  7. Irwin, J. (1970). The felon. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
  8. James, W. (1985). The varieties of religious experience. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin. (Original work published 1902)
  9. Peck D. L., 1987, Corrective and Social Psychiatry and Journal of Behaviour Technology Methods and Therapy, 33, 165
  10. Snow D. A., 1980, Social Problems, 27, 430, 10.1525/sp.1980.27.4.03a00070 · DOI
  11. Strauss, A. L. (1969). Mirrors and masks: The search for identity. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
  12. White, W. L. (1996). Pathways from the culture of addiction to the culture of recovery (2nd ed.). Center City, MN: Hazelden.
  13. Woodberry, J. D. (1992). Conversion in Islam. In H. N. Malony & S. Southard (Eds.), Handbook of religious conversion (pp. 22-39). Birmingham, AL: Religious Education Press.

Cited by

Items 101–200 of 274

Related

See all

Metadata

Authors
Maruna, S., Wilson, L., & Curran, K.
Affiliations
Queen's University Belfast (GB)
ORCID
Venue
Research in Human Development
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Published
2006-09-01
Volume
3
Issue
2
Pages
161-184
ISSN
1542-7609 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1207/s15427617rhd0302&3_6
OpenAlex
W1964845442
Cited by
274
References
79
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 24 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 34 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 24 · 2018: 25 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 22 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 4
FWCI
1.35
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
Research in Human Development (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Identity, Memory, and Therapy
Keywords
religious conversion, self-narrative, shame management, coping strategies, social identity, forgiveness, meaning-making, life story interviews, narrative psychology, second chances

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review