Body Map Storytelling: Exploring identity with lifers convicted of murder using the doctrine of ‘joint enterprise’

Being convicted of murder can shatter an individual’s sense of identity, as they question who they are if they are capable of ‘this’ and struggle to weave the offence into the fabric of their life story. This psychological tumult occurs against a cultural backdrop in which the label ‘murderer’ ‘obliterate[s] all other dimensions of the 'person’. The process of reconciling the conviction with one’s sense of self is more complicated for those who have been convicted of murder as a secondary party. Drawing on ‘body maps’ created by prisoners serving life sentences for murder, in which the doctrine of joint enterprise was used at trial, this article illustrates the difficulties young people face in reconciling their sense of who they are with the identity imposed on them by the criminal justice system.