The offender's narrative: Unresolved dissonance in life as a film (LAAF) responses

Purpose: A growing body of literature indicates the value of exploring the accounts offenders give of their lives. This raises questions about whether offenders’ narratives, distinctive from those of non-offenders, elucidate the identity and agency processes that facilitate continued offending. Method: To explore this, 61 offenders and 90 non-offenders described their life as a film (LAAF). Results: Significant differences between the two samples are revealed across content categories relating to Implicit Content, Explicit Processes, Complexity, and Agency. These relate to a central focus on criminality as a dominant aspect of identity, a generally negative undertone, a concern with the materialistic within the narrative and the significant, yet problematic nature, of relations with others. These four features capture a meta-narrative of Unresolved Dissonance sustaining offending. Conclusion: The findings open the way for the use of the LAAF in order to explore ways of resolving offenders Unresolved Dissonance, through reconstructing their narratives, complementing the Good Lives approach.