Presenter bio

Dr Kelly Richards is an Associate Professor in the School of Justice at Queensland University of Technology, where her research focuses primarily on sexual offending against children and especially on the reintegration of those who perpetrate sexual violence. In 2010, she was awarded the ACT Government Office for Women Audrey Fagan Churchill Fellowship to investigate Circles of Support and Accountability in Canada, America and the United Kingdom. She recently finalised three projects funded by Australia’s National Organisation for Women’s Safety on community-based approaches to reintegrating those who sexually offend, as well as the views of victim/survivors of sexual violence about offender reintegration. Richards is a member of a wide range of professional and community organisations in the fields of criminology and sexual violence. She is a Panel Member of the Queensland Government’s Child Death Case Review Panel, the Queensland representative on the After Prison Network, a Committee Member of the Queensland branch of Restorative Practices International, a member of the Brisbane Rape and Incest Survivors’ Support Centre Research Advisory Group and a member of the Bravehearts Foundation Expert Research Advisory Panel, among others. She was recently awarded a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award and will use this to further her research at California State University and the University of Vermont. In her spare time, she trains with a women’s circus, and enjoys hiking, music, and pub trivia.

Abstract

The literature on desistance from crime shows that desisters often engage in a process of rebiographing, crafting life stories – or “redemption scripts” (Maruna, 2001) – that make sense of their move away from crime. However, this literature has largely excluded non-White offenders and people who offend sexually. The current study addresses these gaps by examining the desistance narratives of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander men convicted of sexual offending. Drawing on interviews with these men, as well as professionals who support them following their release from prison, it identifies ways in which cultural identity can foster desistant identities among people who have sexually offended.