Peer Mentoring in Offender Rehabilitation—On the Development of Desistance Capital Under Precarious Conditions

Abstract

This article examines the practice of peer mentoring in criminological fields of action. In this context, it first explores—primarily through a review of international research findings—the significance of peer mentoring in the context of desistance and then sheds light on the current situation regarding the integration of lived experience in the field of offender rehabilitation in Germany. At the heart of this article is an empirical study that uses qualitative interviews with professional peers working in offender support in Germany to reconstruct how they themselves experience their work. The results show that serving as a mentor can facilitate the mentors’ own desistance process, particularly by offering them the opportunity to interpret past experiences of delinquency as a resource and to build “desistance capital.” At the same time, the study highlights barriers associated with this work that make it difficult to develop long-term prospects outside of a standard employment relationship.