“I Wanted to Feel the Way They Did”: Mimesis as a Situational Dynamic of Peer Mentoring by Ex-Offenders

ABSTRACT

Despite growing enthusiasm for peer mentoring as a criminal justice intervention, very little is known about what actually happens within these relationships. Drawing on an ethnographic study of peer mentoring in the North of England this article will foreground the concept of “inspiration” in these settings. It will argue that Rene Girard’s theory of mimesis offers a framework with which to analyze role modeling in mentoring relationships and that a Girardian reading also offers interesting insights into the unresolved problem of the origins of personal change.

Funding

This research was funded by the ESRC in partnership with Clinks and Keele University (CASE studentship reference number 1037698) (2011–2015).

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the ESRC in partnership with Clinks and Keele University (CASE studentship reference number 1037698) (2011–2015).

Notes on contributors

Gillian Buck

GILLIAN BUCK is Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Chester. She received her Ph.D. in Criminology (2016) from Keele University, UK. Her research interests include peer- and user-led services, the voluntary sector in criminal justice, and young people who are criminally exploited.