Gender constructions from a project on sex offenders

Abstract

The four-year group therapy of 16 sex offenders in prison was videotaped, and 21 sessions were carefully transcribed and analysed by means of conversation analysis and analysis of metaphor and narration. These qualitative methods are apt for verbal data and can be combined with psychoanalytic thinking in a productive way. New forms of process analysis can be developed. The results presented here are selected to relate to the topic of how the imprisoned group therapy participants constructed “gender” by ways of speaking about themselves, women, and their victims, young girls. The results show that it would be a mistake to think of these ways of speaking as if they could be ignored in favour of “deeper” motives, lying “behind” the words. Our results show how unconscious constructions of gender are not beyond language, but in language. “Doing gender” is a conversational practice.

Keywords:

• analysis of metaphor
• analysis of narration
• conversation analysis
• doing gender
• group therapy
• gender constructions
• sex offenders

Notes

¹These abbreviations mean it is the 4th tape and the 69th quotation of the transcript of this tape. Thus readers are enabled to follow the course of the group sessions.

²These signs represent nonverbal events: + means an overlap (the second speaker nearly interrupting the first); + and // or /// are minimal pauses of less than one second in length.

³*means the name is anonymous.

⁴The sign – means a new start of sentence; if someone interrupts one sentence in order to begin a new one. This indicates a conflict of planning one's speech.