The purpose of this study is to discover the turning points women believe helped them stop abusing substances and subsequently maintain sobriety. The study is an examination of narrative responses collected from 25 semi-structured qualitative interviews of women who have remained abstinent from alcohol and drug use for three or more years. The theoretical structure for the current study is to find what cessation turning points taken from the narratives are congruous to Sampson and Laub’s age-graded informal social control theory turning points, in addition to other life-course perspective models and theories. The turning points discussed are employment, education, and other social relationships relative to self-discovery and cognitive change. Understanding what the user and offender comprehends about herself, at different phases in recovery, can illuminate the treatment correctional programs that will help prevent relapse and recidivism.

1. A Qualitative Examination
of Autobiographical Narratives
among Recovering Female
Substance Abusers
Corri Alayne Johanson 2016
Criminology Master’s Thesis Presentation
University of West Georgia
Committee Chair: Dr. Christopher Bounds
Committee Members: Dr. Gavin Lee & Dr. Michael Hester

2. Research Focus
• Life course perspectives
• Sampson & Laub’s age-graded informal social
control theory (AGISC theory)
• Specifically: Laub & Sampson’s turning points of
desistance from crime (1993).
• Are the turning points for the desistance of crime
in general, similar to cessation from substance
abuse?
• For females?
• For females from their perspective?

3. This project has several research questions.
1) Given the findings of Sampson and Laub that identify formal and
informal relationships such as marriage quality and job stability, as key
turning points in the lives of individuals who have desisted from crime,
do the individuals in this sample identify with the same turning points?
2) Are the turning points found by Sampson and Laub for the desistance
of crime, in general, the same for substance abuse cessation.
3) Given that Sampson and Laub’s sample consisted of only males, do
the females in this sample identify similar turning points?
4) Do the individuals in this project perceive and attribute the turning
points found by Sampson and Laub as causes to their cessation from
substance abuse?

4. Life Course Perspective &
Age-graded Informal Social Control Theory
• Life Course Perspective:
• A way to understand a person from the person’s
development through different periods in life
(Huchinson, 2010, p. 8).
• AGISC theory turning points related to
desistance from crime. (Sampson & Laub, 1993)
• Employment
• Military
• Marriage

5. Relevance & Contributions
• Some crimes are committed by intoxicated individuals
• domestic abuse
• child endangerment
• accidental deaths
• deaths by DUI auto accidents
• Drugs - Crime Nexus
• Thefts, robberies, and burglaries committed to fuel
addiction.
• Systemic violence associated with drug trade
• Research for Females
• Gendered pathways of desistance research

6. Literature Review:
Expanded Research
• AGISC theory has grown to include:
• Substance abuse desistance (Sampson &
Laub, 2001)
• Data on females (Giordiano,et. al, 2008;
Katz, 2000; Moult, 2008; Miller & Mullins,
2006)
• Formal/Informal social controls
• Spirituality/Religion (Giordiano, et. al, 2002)
• Friendships (Giordiano, et. al, 2003)
• Mentors (Brown & Ross, 2010, Hughes, 1998)
• Parenting (Hser, et.al, 2011; Hughes, 1998)

7. Literature Review:
Expanded Research
Why turning points are effective to
desistance
• Cognitive Shifts (perspective) (Laub &
Sampson, 2001)
• Identity Change (Bachman et. al, 2015)
• Human Agency (choice), (Bandura, 2006;
Sampson & Laub, 2003)
• Self-Efficacy (confidence) (Shover, 1983)

8. Literature Review:
Expanded Research
Ways to enhance turning point effectiveness
for desistance
• Increase social capital (Maruna, 2001)
• Redemption script (Braithwaite, 1989)
• Re-biographing (Maruna, & Brickman, et al.,
1982)
• Decrease levels of duration and clustering of
strain (GST) (Slocum et al., 2005)

9. Methods
● Participants:
• 25 women remained substance free for three or more
years.
• Prior criminal convictions.
• All in programs that follow total abstinence from
alcohol and drug abuse
● Questionnaire – NHI adaptation (Murphy, et. al, 2010)
• Inquired about turning points, relationships and what
cognitive shifts occurred, chronologically in 3 phases
● Event Timeline Chart to assist in memory recall
• Adaptation: of LET & EHC (CALDAR, 2015) LEC
(Horney,et. al, 1995)
● Used a hand-held digital recorder
● Manifest and latent coding technique

10. Phase I: Active Addiction
● Delayed desistance:
• Romantic partner relationships
Nicolle- We both drank and drugged heavily together. I come out of
detox and he would ask me to fix him a drink.
• Education (informal, Donohue, et.al, 1973) :
Ignorant about addiction
Grace- The alcoholic was somebody who lived under a bridge and the
addict was you know, crack houses, someone with needles in their
arms. I wasn’t anything like those people.
● Greatest desistance motivator :
• Employment: job stability, status, and money were seen as
motivators.
Sarah- My job was the only shred I had left. Only thing left I had
where people could see that I was ok and that was about to go.
Isolation & Indentity

11. Phase II: Becoming sober
● Greatest desistance motivator: Friendships
Delilah- First thing I remember is the friendship of AA people – we
had a tight group of women.
• Increasing supportive social capital
• Mentors
• Guided self-reflective narratives
Ursa- I only had one coping skill and that was to hide and retreat.
That is in the program where I began to see there is a whole different
way of being. It let me have room to make choices and to think things
through, to learn to make healthier choices.
• Cognitive shifts & self-efficacy: Productive re-biographing
actions

12. Phase III: Continuous Sobriety
• Relapse Prevention
Idelle- I ask what I can do today. And get out of bed
and start doing my business. I will go to a meeting.
I talk to women in recovery, and do a lot of service
work in the community through my church and with
AA. I try to get a balance…
• Turning points of desistance show results
• Reentry and Restitution
• Mentor others
• Collective efficacy activities.

13. Conclusions
The idea of human agency and increasing self-
efficacy is considered the “missing link in
desistance” (Laub & Sampson, 2003, p. 141)
• Turning points and formal/informal social controls
can be considered factors within the realm of
desistance from substance abuse
• This study questions assumptions regarding the
temporal and linear order of turning points
• Turning points must have a purposeful meaning
• Cognitive shift is essential to productive use of a
turning point

14. Recommendations
“The challenge centers on how to enlist these agentic human
capabilities in ways that shape a better and sustainable
future.” (Bandura, 2006, p. 177).
• Criminal Justice System:
• Incarceration methods of isolation did not
encourage desistance.
• Sentencing Programs
• Implement Cognitive transformations and identity
change programs that encourage…
• drug court
• rehabilitation centers
• out-patient substance abuse therapy
• mandatory attendance at recovery groups

15. Further research
• Expand this project and examine the data
further
• Further research of marginalized groups
(integrate Slocum’s GST concepts of strain)
• Further research with men in recovery
• Further research with ex-substance abusers
who used other cessation methods.

16. Thank You!
Corri Johanson 2016

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