Mentoring, Identity and Desistance: An Interview-Based Study Involving Men with Lived Experience of Imprisonment in the UK Criminal Justice System

By Beatrise Razgulajeva,

London Metropolitan University.

This dissertation examines the role of mentoring initiatives in supporting desistance from crime among men in the UK criminal justice system, with a particular focus on mentors with lived experience of imprisonment. The study is grounded in desistance theory (Maruna, 2001; Farrall, 2002), cognitive transformation perspectives (Giordano et al., 2002), and a theory of change framework which highlights the relational and psychological mechanisms underpinning behavioural change. A qualitative research design was adopted, using semi-structured interviews conducted via WhatsApp with five male participants currently or formerly engaged in mentoring roles within the criminal justice system. The data were analysed using thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006), focusing on how participants construct meanings around mentoring, identity change, and desistance from offending.

The findings suggest that mentoring is closely linked to identity transformation, where participants move away from offending towards pro-social identities through reflection, key turning points, and sustained relational support. Five key themes were identified: the absence or limitation of positive male role models during childhood and its influence on later motivation to mentor; identity transformation expressed through redemption scripts and narratives of “giving back”; the importance of shared lived experience in establishing trust and credibility; mentoring as a space that enables emotional openness and the reconstruction of positive masculinity; and the reciprocal nature of mentoring, where it provides both meaning and purpose for mentors while reinforcing desistance processes. Overall, the study concludes that mentoring does not directly cause desistance but contributes to it indirectly through relational, emotional, and identity-based mechanisms. Desistance is understood as a gradual, non-linear, and socially embedded process shaped by both individual agency and wider structural conditions.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21478220

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