Lives Spiraling out of Control
Lives Spiraling out of Control
This chapter, and the chapters that follow, take a chronological approach following the life histories of the interviewees before incarceration, throughout incarceration, and after release. Chapter four talks about the lives of the interviewees before they committed the homicide: Their childhood, family relations, neighborhood characteristics, previous criminal behavior, and lifestyle, and how these factors lead up to them becoming involved in a homicide and how, consequently, they were sentenced to life in prison. Contrary to the popular stereotype, these lifers are not hardened killers – their homicides were largely unpremeditated, and occurred in the context of bleak, marginalized, and often tragic life circumstances.
Keywords: homicide, narrative, life history, childhood, marginality, family relation, neighbourhood, criminal history, lifestyle, life sentence
NYU Press Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.