Challenging Dominant Discourses: Peer Work as Social Justice Work

Abstract

ABSTRACT People with mental illnesses are overrepresented in the criminal justice system, and discourses concerning the medical model, criminalization, and criminality dominate the intervention landscape for this population. Using a critical postmodern lens, 45 in-depth interviews with peer specialists who had incarceration histories were analyzed to understand how they approach their work. Peer specialists with incarceration histories constructed new identities through their training and peer work by valuing experiential knowledge. Even in the face of power differentials, they challenged dominant discourses directly and indirectly and advocated for various forms of help for the people with whom they worked.