This article examines the life-history narratives of 25 successful ex-offenders professing Christianity as the source of their desistance. Unstructured in-depth life-history interviews from adult male desisters affirm use of a "feared self" and "cognitive shifts" regarding perceptions of illegal behavior. "Condemnation scripts" and "redemption narratives," however, differ radically from those uncovered in previous research. Stories of behavior change and identity transformation achieved through private religious practice and energetic church membership dominate the narratives. Findings suggest there are diverse phenomenologies of desistance and that by more narrowly tailoring research to explore subjectivities in the desistance process, important discrepancies in perceptions of agency and structure are revealed. Three prominent desistance paradigms--Making Good, Cognitive Transformation, and Identity Theory--are used to examine the narratives.

This study examined urban educators’ attitudes toward commonly recommended interventions for students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Participants included 358 pupil personnel services (PPS) professionals—school psychologists, social workers, and counselors—and 70 classroom teachers from urban elementary schools. On average, PPS professionals and classroom teachers expressed little confidence in the effectiveness of commonly used classroom, mental health, and pharmacological treatments for ADHD. For PPS professionals, a moderately positive correlation was found between self-confidence and effectiveness ratings for classroom interventions and mental health interventions, and a small positive association was found between knowledge of ADHD and effectiveness ratings for medication. Teacher self-confidence was positively associated with effectiveness ratings for classroom interventions. Knowledge of ADHD was negatively correlated with teacher perceptions of the effectiveness of classroom and mental health interventions. Neither child gender nor ADHD subtype influenced effectiveness ratings. Results are discussed in regard to the urgent need for urban educators to experience greater success in their efforts to implement interventions for students with ADHD and for research focused on the unique needs of children residing in urban, low-income communities.