Research on offender verbalizations traditionally focuses on the degree to which offenders accept responsibility (or blame) for their mistakes. This small study expands this cognitive perspective in criminology by incorporating basic findings from the psychological literature on attributions. Additionally, offender attributions or neutralizations are framed within a life course perspective. It was found that active offenders and desisting ex-offenders differ in terms of explanatory style. Compared to desisting ex-offenders, active offenders tend to interpret negative events in their lives as being the product of internal, stable, and global forces. On the other hand, active offenders were more likely to believe that the good events in their lives were the product of external, unstable and specific causes. These other dimensions of offender cognitions may be useful in understanding the psychological aspects of desistance from crime.
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