This collection focuses on the existential predicaments and choices that underpin current debates and developments in the governance of crime and criminal justice and argues for the relevance of existentialist thought for enhancing a critical and philosophically inspired criminological imagination.

This book focuses on the experience of leaving unusual or extreme situations: from military careers to religious communities, subcultures, criminal groups and political leadership. It explores how people become disillusioned with and disengaged from these social worlds, challenging their sense of self-identity and cultural belonging. Each chapter considers how participants negotiate the process of 'role exit' and adjust to their new identity back in the everyday world. Drawing on symbolic interactionist and existentialist theories, the authors discuss how ex-members dismantle and rebuild their lives in a search for personal meaning.

This collection focuses on the existential predicaments and choices that underpin current debates and developments in the governance of crime and criminal justice and argues for the relevance of existentialist thought for enhancing a critical and philosophically inspired criminological imagination.