The overarching aim of this paper is to show how a marketing perspective, together with an analysis of dressing and clothes on groups in our society, can help to explain such tangible issues as the recidivism sequence for criminals, this being an important factor for the crime rate in western countries. The problem is visualized in two ways: firstly though statistics from The Swedish Crime Survey, 2015, and secondly by in-depth description of systems of dressing and deporting of oneself—one’s demeanor—complemented with interviews with criminals showing how the identity is drifting into the form of authenticity, which is elaborated as a marketing communication problem in this paper. The analysis is based on a marketing communication perspective in conjunction with individual and group authenticity issues.
In sum, it is about the individual recidivism in getting the authenticity of criminality. This means that the identity is visibly anchoring itself in the form of a criminal authenticity.
The study boils down to a statement, which can be coined “The longer a person is in prison, the greater the probability of recidivism into criminal activity for that same person.”
The conclusion is that we cannot-paradoxically, as it may seem-cure the recidivism problem in the world of criminals since one cannot change an authenticity-authentic identity-well anchored through personal outfits, thus communicating to the society at large. Finally, we provide reasons why the correctional institutions still have great difficulties to bring down the criminal recidivism rate.

• Håkan Preiholt(Stockholms universitet School of Business, Sweden)
• Martin Svendsen(Stockholms universitet School of Business, Sweden)