ABSTRACT

Childhood adversities, such as abuse, neglect and parental alcohol and substance abuse, has been linked to higher rates of youth delinquency. Drawing on interviews with 33 young male offenders, incarcerated in Swedish prisons, this paper analyzes how they narrate their experiences of growing up, and particularly how they make sense of their childhood adversities in light of their present situation as incarcerated and convicted of serious crime. Three forms of narratives are identified: stories of childhood adversities affecting the present delinquent self; narratives where “the problem child” serves as the link between childhood and present self; and “broken narratives” where childhood adversities are depicted as not associated with the present self at all. The majority of the young men draw upon the latter two of these narrative types. The analyses conclude that in both of them the young men avoid presenting that their childhood adversities have affected their contemporary selves and criminal behavior, but rather emphasize individual responsibility tied both to street masculinity and to a discourse of responsibilization.

摘要

童年时期的逆境，例如虐待、忽视和父母酗酒和滥用药物，与青少年犯罪率较高有关。本文通过对 33 名被关押在瑞典监狱中的年轻男性罪犯的采访，分析了他们如何讲述自己的成长经历，尤其是鉴于他们目前被关押并被判犯有严重罪行的情况，他们如何理解童年的逆境。确定了三种叙事形式：影响当前犯罪自我的童年逆境故事；叙述“问题儿童”作为童年和现在的自我之间的纽带；和“破碎的叙述”，其中童年的逆境被描述为与现在的自我完全无关。大多数年轻人都借鉴了后两种叙事类型。