Book Review: Presser, L. (2008). Been a Heavy Life: Stories of Violent Men Urbana: University of Illinois Press, pp. xxx, 200. ISBN 10:0-252-03358-2

• Date: 01 December 2009
• Author: Patricia Yancey Martin
• DOI: 10.1177/1057567709349187
• Published date: 01 December 2009
• Subject Matter: Articles

Presser, L. (2008). Been a Heavy Life: Stories of Violent Men

Urbana: University of Illinois Press, pp. xxx, 200.

ISBN 10:0-252-03358-2.

DOI: 10.1177/1057567709349187

This jewel of a book packs quite a wallop. In only 156 pages, sociologist/criminologist Lois

Presser explores how violent men use narrative—story telling—to create an identity. Her data con-

sist of indepth interviews with 27 men who had been convicted of a violent crime or accused of the

same (2 of the 25 were never convicted). The men ranged in age from 17 to 57 and were imprisoned

for (or accused of) robbery, assault, rape and/or murder (with many also admitting to serious crimes

for which they were never charged). Presser interviewed the men in prison, halfway houses, univer-

sity offices, and/or restaurants. One informant, who had killed his wife, had written a book that she

quotes from as well. An informant on death row was interviewed by telephone and then put to death

before she completed the study.

The first half of the book is dedicated to setting up Presser’s findings that we eventually encounter

in Chapters 5 to 10. She extensively reviews literature (especially theory, and also empirical and

methods-related material) on the use of narrative for studying identity and convicted violent offen-

ders. Her theoretical bent is symbolic interaction, but she addresses critical criminology theory and

Foucault as well. She says her goal is not to explain why (some) men commit violent crimes. Rather,

she is interested in how such men use narratives to construct ‘‘respectable’’ identities, both as men

and as ‘‘violent offenders.’’ Her interviews typically lasted 13 hours, and she interviewed some

men multiple times. She told the men she was collecting data for her Ph.D. research and, as she

acknowledged late in the book, the men were aware that she had contacts in the system that gave

her access to them.

What kind of selves did the men narrate? Presser identifies both structural and substantive themes

in their narratives. Of the 27 men, 5 framed a morally reformed self that had changed in fundamental

ways from what it formerly was. Ten gave narratives that framed themselves as morally stable, that

is, as having been morally upstanding all along and thus no different when she interviewed them than

before they were inc arcerated or committed felonies. The rem aining 12 men offered what Presser cal ls

elastic narrativesthat included elements of both moralreform and moral stability. The lattermen gave

‘‘weak’’ versions of the reform aspect of their selves,not claiming to have been substantially changed

afterward, and they expressed an inconsistent morally stable narrative when constructing an identity.

Each category of narrative had subthemes, for example, moral reform framed the self in relation

to the person as being ‘‘essentially good’’ and/or as adopting ‘‘ongoing strategies for desistance’’ (or

desisting from doing crime). The morally stable narrative included themes such as ‘‘crime as good’’

(including ‘‘masculine violence as good’’ and ‘‘deviance as sport’’) and ‘‘crime as momentary.’’

Some men expressed a frame that ‘‘shifted the focus’’ to other issues (e.g., ‘‘I was a victim’’ or

‘‘crime is foolishness’’) or the notion that one commits crime because one is a ‘‘bad seed.’’ Elastic

narratives entailed less coherent ‘‘plots’’ (e.g., they talked in the abstract) and/or weak commitment

(if any) to desistance from further criminal actions.

A consistent theme in the men’s accounts was that of hero. Even if they admitted to having killed

someone, they tended to frame themselves as redeemed in some way by what they also did or

avoided doing or tried to do. The men’s disapproval and resentment of the criminal justice ‘‘system’’

was nearly universal because they viewed it as attempting to control every aspect of their lives both

during and after incarceration. Presser found that ‘‘treatment’’ in correctional facilities largely uses a

cognitive bias that asks men to construct narratives that frame themselves as both problem and

solution to their criminal involvement.

Book Reviews 485