Maria Domenech Corbera
NIU: 1794996
ACTIVITY SUBMISSION: Life in Pieces
1. Which would be the key moments in Alison’s life or actions taken by her, that, in
your opinion, were relevant to understand her life course?
Alison’s life has been marked by unfortunate events since its beginning, obligating her to do
different acts in order to survive.
Firstly, Alison lost his mother when she was only a preteen due to a heart attack. Such an
accident resulted in Alison going to live with her grandparents. This led to childhood neglect
and trauma, and because of an early exposure to family instability, Alison set a foundation of
emotional insecurity and low self-worth, which she carried all his life.
Secondly, Alison started offending at a young age, which ended with her being put into a
children's home at 13, where she met a guy, who she ended up going out with for about a
year. Nevertheless, the breaking point was when he stabbed her several times at only 15 years
old. When she was released from the hospital, she started using drugs, principally smoking
cigarettes or bottle cinder.
Another important action would be the friends she associated herself with. She was always
with delinquent peers, who only reinforced her criminal and drugaddict behaviour. Or his first
interaction with real imprisonment, which really materialised her “criminal” label.
Once she got out, she ended up pregnant after going out with a man she met at a bar, a man
who was unstable and dangerous to both mother and child. She then started using again, and,
not only that, but she started selling her body for money.
Another key moment would be when her anxiety started because of being sexually assaulted
by his cousin and his friend. This probably destabilized her the most. And, because she didn’t
want to use drugs again, she drowned her sorrows in alcohol. Or when she got reunited with
her partner and he started abusing her, which resulted in her relapse.
At this point, Alison's life started being a constant circle of reoffending to enable her
consumption and getting in and out of prison.
2. Identify in the comic between three to five criminological theories, and justify
their importance to explain and understand Alison's life.
We can see that there are different criminological theories that can be related to Alison’s life.
Firstly, we have seen how different types of interactions as well as actions, accidents have
changed Alison’s curse of life. This could be explained with the Social Learning-Differential
Association Theory, which explains that the simple act of offending is given by the diverse
interactions the individual has with situations, people…
Another one would be the Strain Theory, it is based on the positive and negative factors that
influence a person when committing crimes. Different types of situations led Alison to start
offending, such as the death of her mother or the fact that she wasn’t helped in her deepest
moments pushed her to start looking for other ways to cope.
