Narrative Rehabilitation: Manifestation of Chinese and Western Reform Ideals and Practices

Date

2020-09-11

Advisors

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Sage

Type

Article

Peer reviewed

Yes

Abstract

The existing literature has shown that in Western penal systems there is often an official demand for narrative rehabilitation during treatment programs, and has criticized the requirement for a narrative change to correspond with the “judicial-correctional truth.” This study is based on participant observation in a male prison in mainland China. Through a comparative lens, this paper found that offenders in Western treatment programs are required to demonstrate a change in narrative identity that is immersed in details from their personal history and from judicial discourse, whereas the Chinese penal system scrutinizes individuality less and focuses more on adherence to a unified narrative form and structure. While both systems are concerned with social control and the legitimation of penal power, Chinese prisons are less concerned with cognitive specifics and more with overt behavioral compliance. Both practices of narrative rehabilitation may be insufficient in facilitating the complex needs of offenders to desist from reoffending.

Description

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.

Keywords

prison studies, Chinese criminology, Chinese prisons, narrative criminology, comparative criminology, offender rehabilitation, penology

Citation

Zhang, X. (2021) Narrative Rehabilitation: Manifestation of Chinese and Western Reform Ideals and Practices. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 65 (4), pp. 373-389

Rights

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Research Institute