A Multi-Perspective Analysis of Relationships Between Men With Criminal Convictions and Professionals in the Reintegration Process

Abstract

The reintegration of criminally convicted men involves complex and multi-layered processes. In many cases, social relationships, including those with professional helpers, play a central role in this process as the form these relationships take can have a considerable influence on the course of social reintegration. Based on a longitudinal study, this text systematically relates and compares two evaluations – selfassessments and assessments by others – of persons convicted of criminal offences and professionals. It is shown that the mutual experience of the relationship depends on different factors, such as the establishment of a relationship of trust or the interpretation of one's own or the other's role. Such a multiperspective analysis of relationships offers advantages in that one can directly compare congruencies or divergences in the respective attributions of meaning.