A Grounded Theory about the Repetition of Drug Trafficking (Case Study: Prisoners of Kerman Central Prison, Winter 1400/2022)

This study aimed to get a grounded theory about the repetition of drug trafficking based on the deepest possible understanding of the activists of the social phenomenon. Different dimensions of recidivism were identified in an interpretative paradigm using a qualitative approach and grounded theory method. Prisoners who had already been convicted of drug trafficking, but repeated their crime and been arrested, consisted the population of this research. Using purposive sampling, 34 men and women incarcerated in the central prison of Kerman city were selected. The results included 120 initial codes, 15 axial codes, and four main categories, based on which the recidivism of Kerman prisoners can be interpreted. The categories are: 1) Recidivism as a rational act; 2) Recidivism as a social action; 3) Recidivism as a perfectionist; and 4) Recidivism as an inevitable act. The core category of this research is “repetition of crime as a dead end to compensate for the lost life”, which is related to the causal conditions of individual characteristics, criminal behavior pattern, social class, and women’s disturbance. The issue has formed in the contextual conditions of humiliating behaviors, economic problems, lack of opportunity to reduce crime in stigmatized society, intensified by such issues like perfectionist beliefs and marital relations. Overall, these have intensifyed the identity crisis, social exclusion, and pessimism as consequences.