Been a Heavy Life
Stories of Violent Men
A groundbreaking look at how violent men tell their life stories
Paper – $28
978-0-252-07558-2
eBook – $19.95
978-0-252-09218-3
Publication Date
Cloth: 09/15/2008
About the Book
In this groundbreaking work, Lois Presser investigates the life stories of men who have perpetrated violence. She applies insights from across the academy to in-depth interviews with men who shared their accounts of how they became the people we most fear--those who rape, murder, assault, and rob, often repeatedly. Been a Heavy Life provides the discipline of criminology with two crucial frameworks: one for critically evaluating the construction of offenders’ own stories, and one for grasping the cultural meta-narratives that legitimize violence. For social scientists generally, this book offers a vivid demonstration of just how dynamic and contingent self-narratives are.About the Author
Lois Presser is a professor of sociology at the University of Tennessee. Her books include Inside Story: How Narratives Drive Mass Harm.Reviews
“A must-read for anyone interested in critical criminology, violent offending, or qualitative methods. . . . Presser provides a unique and fresh new perspective into cultural narratives that legitimate violence.”--Critical Criminology“Interviews of 27 men convicted of violent crime . . . presented in the context of a mass imprisonment binge, illustrate individual struggles and broader issues related to the politics of criminalization and criminal justice. . . . Highly recommended.”--Choice
This jewel of a book packs quite a wallop."--International Criminal Justice Review."
Blurbs
“Been a Heavy Life makes a huge contribution to several different areas of research, including the criminological study of violence and narrative psychology. Presser does researchers across disciplines a great service by wrestling with some of the most daunting methodological and theoretical problems in the intersection of these fields.”--Shadd Maruna, author of Making Good: How Ex-Convicts Reform and Rebuild Their Lives
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