Alberto Pesce (2025), Ethnography of Denial, Gender-Based Violence and the Construction of Guilt in Prisoners’ Narratives

Abstract

The monograph of Alberto Pesce, "Ethnography of Denial: Gender-Based Violence and the Construction of Guilt in Prisoners’ Narratives", represents a significant contribution to the sociological debate on gender-based violence and the discursive strategies through which offenders interpret and justify their own behaviour. Building on existing Italian and international research on gender-based violence (Giulini and Xella, 2011), the work stands out for its focus on the narratives of 128 prisoners found criminally responsible for offences of abuse, sexual violence and femicide committed against individuals over the age of 14, offering an original perspective on the ways in which responsibility is denied, mitigated or transferred onto the victims.