Looking for ‘emotional balance’ in desistance from crime: Testimonies from justice‐involved individuals in French‐speaking Switzerland

Abstract

This article is based on 48 interviews and five writing testimonies of 23 men convicted, incarcerated and released from high-security prisons in the French part of Switzerland. Through a longitudinal and phenomenological perspective, this contribution explores the role of affective states in desistance from crime. The findings show that giving up crime requires navigating through three ‘emotional seeds’ that qualify the most significant affective states of the desistance process: distress; disillusionment; and hope. Thus, this research develops the notion of ‘emotional balance’ in desistance from crime, which consists of being neither overwhelmed by one’s feelings nor repressing them.