2022
Peggy C. Giordano
Causes of crime and society’s responses to crime, including rehabilitation of offenders.
Peggy C. Giordano was lauded for her research on juvenile delinquency and rehabilitation. Her work has deepened our understanding of how social relationships and individual factors affect young offenders’ criminal behaviour and their chances of reintegration into society. Giordano has focused on the importance of family, friends, and romantic relationships, all of which can both promote criminality and facilitate the process of leaving behind a life of crime. The process of leaving the criminal lifestyle is detailed in her theory of cognitive transformation.Peggy C. Giordano
Born 1943 in the US. Peggy C. Giordano was professor emeritus of Sociology at Bowling Green State University (United States) at the time of the award.
Showed that close relationships can provide a path into – or out of – criminal behaviour.Showed that close relationships can provide a path into – or out of – criminal behaviour.
Life journeys out of criminality
Peggy C. Giordano was awarded the 2022 Stockholm Prize in Criminology for her research on how social relationships affect criminal behaviour and possibilities for change.
Giordano has conducted extensive criminological research on the causes of crime and society’s ability to prevent recidivism. Her research has, in particular, improved our understanding of how close relationships and rehabilitation efforts can help offenders leave a life of crime, highlighting the importance of such interventions in breaking off criminal careers already at an early stage.
Importance of rehabilitation efforts
Giordano has studied the circumstances under which a person stops engaging in criminal behaviour. She found, among other things, that ‘cognitive transformation’ – i.e., a profound change to one’s views of self and one’s external environment – is a prerequisite for successful rehabilitation. The treatment of criminally active people therefore needs to strive to bring about such a transformation.
Broad-based research
Throughout her long research career, Giordano has used mixed quantitative and qualitative methodologies to study the life courses of a large group of serious criminals and has studied the processes that lead to their eventual desistance from crime. At a time of increasing calls for tougher criminal sentencing, Giordano’s research shows the importance of not losing focus on the rehabilitative role of criminal sanctions.