Desistance habitus: strategically using experience in action

This article builds on the concept of Street and Carceral Habitus and Capital and introduces the forward-thinking concept of Desistance Capital. This takes place through an auto ethnographical embodied experience of navigating both persistent criminality and the revolving door of incarceration. The auto-ethnographical analysis is posited within Bourdieu’s conceptual frameworks of Habitus, Capital, Field, and Doxa. It is argued through lived experience that these constructs provide an innovative approach to explore how legitimacy is obtained as capital within the relational dynamic between those involved in the criminal justice system and professionals who have been exposed to similar lived experiences of crime and punishment. This method of analysis is lacking within the limited criminological investigation that has taken place on peer mentors. The conclusion is that both street and carceral experiences can generate legitimacy and credibility as Desistance Capital by professionals with both street and carceral habitus.