Agency

Agency is the sum of the better qualities of people, which enable them to bring about life changes in their own lives and the lives of others through conscious actions. It is a

fundamental principle of developmental life-course theories (Elder Jr et al. 2003; Piquero and Moffitt 2011) which treat the development of offending behaviour as an emergent process based on the assumption that the causes of crime are not reducible solely to the individual or the environment (Sampson and Laub 2005). This agentic perspective sees human agency as a force irrespective of existing social or structural constraints (Elder Jr et al. 2003; Maguire and Raynor 2006; Farrall et al. 2010).

The concept of agency assumes that ‘people are not just spectators of their behaviour nor are they simply products of them but they intentionally influence and contribute to their own life functioning and circumstances’ (Bandura 2006, p.164). Therefore the things that individuals value are those which shape their progress in life (Porter 2000) and the construction of their life trajectories are based on how they choose to exercise their free will (Bandura 1982; Elder Jr et al. 2003; Bandura 2006; Geldhof et al. 2010; Farrington 2011). Essentially, ways in which their identities are formed help to determine how individuals structure their lives and relate to their social environment (Bandura 2008). However as the number of exogenous problems mount then the capacities and potential that dwell within a notion of agency may become overwhelmed by multiple adversities (Burnett and McNeill 2005a). This suggests that whilst agency is extremely important it alone may not be sufficient to create the conditions needed for effective reintegration to occur, certainly so within the Jamaican

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context. That said, much will depend upon the subjective disposition of the individual and their and others’ capacity to write a new ‘script’, narrate a new identity for themselves away from crime (Maruna 2001). It is to this point that we turn next.

3.2.1.1 Narrative Theory

Narrative theory is one of the three broad theoretical perspectives identified by Maruna (1997) within the desistance literature (see McNeill 2006). Its foremost concern is the way in which narrative identities are reconstructed in order to support primary desistance (McIvor and Raynor 2007). It also stresses the importance of subjective changes in offenders’ sense of self and identity (McNeill 2006), what Maruna (2001), cited in Laws and Ward (2011, p.79) describes as ‘ the restorying as one’s life in order to accommodate changes involved with leading a crime-free lifestyle’. The consequence of this‘restorying’ may be described as the ‘redemptive script’, and is central to offenders developing genuine prosocial identities (Kazemian and Maruna 2009) needed to sustain cessation from offending (McAdams 2013).

Redemption which is understood in a theological sense as absolution from past sins or errors through the making of a sacrifice or payment for the liberation of the sinner (Firestone 2008) is an important construct in the Christian faith. In this specific sense, ideas of redemption are not foreign to Jamaica which is predominantly a Christian country having one of the highest densities of churches per square kilometre in the world (Chambers 2008; Perkins 2010; Haynes 2014a). This might suggest that if these notions of redemption were being exercised with vigour then perhaps the prison recidivism and violent crime rates in Jamaica would be much lower. However Giordano et al. (2008) found no significant association between indices of religiosity and likelihood of achieving sustained desistance despite a possible connection between religion and offender redemption. Even so, Appleton (2010) suggests

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that having a faith and associated membership of some denomination or sect may encourage involvement in support networks and altruistic activities which may then bring about needed changes in cognition and eventually behaviour.

Narrative theory also assumes that offenders react to stimuli based on self-perception and the interpretation of life events (Toch 1987, cited in Maruna (1997, p.9). Therefore whilst objective changes in the lives of offenders are useful to the change process equally important are their own assessments of the value of any within-individual changes (McNeill 2006) and motivation in helping to sustain them (Maguire and Raynor 2006). Self-discovery of agency is therefore an imperative for offenders seeking to overcome criminogenic pressures that may encourage criminal recidivism (Maruna 2001, in Weaver and McNeill 2007b, p.6) because it raises a consciousness of the type of commitment required to maintain new habits (Mulvey et al. 2004). Therefore respite from crime experienced through incarceration in Jamaica and other jurisdictions (Morris 2008), as well as cognitive transformation, may enable self- discovery whereby offenders are able to discern changes which have developed in part or whole through agentic experiences (Bahr et al. 2010).

Cognitive therapy, which is administered sparingly in Jamaican prisons, provides individuals with the opportunity to claim an alternative personal identity which is desirable and socially approved (Farrall and Maruna 2004). However Bahr et al. (2010) suggest that support networks may also provide the alternative identity needed to lead reintegrated lives. This is because they may help offenders develop new scripts for their future by enabling them to insulate themselves from environments which stimulate or support their deviance (Bahr et al. 2010). They also help in the accumulation of social capital which is needed to maintain approved and productive activities and relationships (Mulvey et al. 2004). These associations

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according to social learning theory provide reinforcement of prosocial behaviours (Bahr et al. 2010).

Social learning theory is a revision of the theory of differential association and assumes that various motivations are learnt through association with significant others (Bahr et al. 2010). This seems true when examining the impact that growing up under the supervision of the Jamaican community don (an antisocial role that was introduced in Chapter 2) had on the behaviours of individuals living in disadvantaged communities. Therefore it is likely that many offenders even before imprisonment may have grown up in environments unsupportive of mainstream values and norms. As such it is unlikely that incarceration would lead to their correction (DeJong 1997) as they were never socially integrated to begin with and arguably imprisonment may have worsened the situation.