Svårigheten med att bryta mönster : En kvalitativ studie om före detta kriminellas livsstilsförändring

Sammanfattning: Our study is about how individuals leave their old lifestyle of criminals to be con-criminals. Which results in this question – How can we understand the process which entails to a successful lifestyle change? To get a deeper understanding about the turn-out of the process have we been taking help by four theories, Hirschi, Tilly, Granovetter and Ebaugh. Hirschi’s theory answer the following question “Why don’t people break the law?” This question answers which factors that separates criminals and non-criminals from each other. Tilly’s theory is formed to answer the inequalities origin, development and how it’s constantly reproducing itself. Through this we get an understanding of why it’s difficult to leave a network and through that, we understand which mechanisms binds an individual to a network. By knowing this we can revaluate the knowledge and therefore answer the question which mechanisms are necessary in the network of binding the individual. Granovetter’s network-theory explains how the social relationships may have an impact on the results of the lifestyle change. Ebaugh’s stage-theory about role exit explains how a process against a changed lifestyle seems. The result that we have concluded, through collected empiricism from 10 con-criminals, have different components from mainly the three latter theories. We have been taking help of Hirschi’s theory to understand Granovetter’s network-theory, regarding how a tie develops to a stronger tie. The results that appeared after the interviews from our informants from KRIS (Kriminellas Revansch I Samhället), were that their lifestyle change emerged as a result after an episode in their life made them doubt their own life-situation and lifestyle. Those events were often connected to bad health or to relationships that didn’t have the same value as the previous ones. These events contribute that the individual starts to doubt and search for alternatives paths. To our informants have KRIS been the alternative path and through combining Tilly’sand Granovetter’s theories, we can be able to understand why and how our informants are successful with their lifestyle change. Thanks to our interviews with our informants we can find common factors, even if they came from different contexts, and through components from the different theories we can create us an analysis model that explains a successful lifestyle change.