Qualitative study reveals constrained developmental agency and linked life trajectories in returning citizens, highlighting structural and intergenerational dimensions of incarceration reentry.
Life Course Theory has shaped criminology's understanding of desistance. Yet, its applications often overlook the relational and structural dimensions of incarceration and reentry. Drawing on qualitative interviews with returning citizens, this article introduces Relational Life Course Criminology (RLCC) and the concept of constrained developmental agency to show how agency emerges early through survival, caregiving, and adaptation under structural adversity. Findings position incarceration and reentry as intergenerational, relational processes unfolding across linked lives, expanding criminological applications of Life Course Theory to better account for structural inequality, identity reconstruction, family systems, and lived experience over time.
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Chowdhury et al. (2026) studied this question.
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