‘A Safe Place to be Happy and Content’: Housing and ‘Home’ in Women’s Desistance

Abstract

Through narrative interviews with 15 women with histories of imprisonment in Aotearoa New Zealand, this article explores the role of housing and ‘home’ in women’s desistance. The article argues that safety and control are key psycho-social benefits of ‘home’ that support women’s ontological security. The women’s ‘homes’ – as sites of safety and control – could provide a space for them to construct drug and crime free identities and ultimately ‘do’ desistance. Moreover, their ‘homes’ became a physical manifestation or ‘expression’ of their changing identities which served to motivate and further reinforce their desistance.