employee from 01.01.2003 until now
Saint Petersburg, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
UDC 343.85
Introduction. In the context of rethinking the effectiveness of the criminal justice system in the United States, aimed at finding ways of reducing mass incarceration, combating recidivism, and strengthening mechanisms for the reintegration of former prisoners, there is particular significance in analysing discursive practices, and in particular the language used for describing individuals with a penitentiary background. Traditional dehumanising terms (‘criminal’, ‘prisoner’, ‘convict’) are not neutral; they reduce human personality to a single unlawful act, reproducing stigma and creating difficult barriers to resocialisation. The purpose of the research is to provide a systematic analysis of the evolution of the labelling theory, the concept of stigmatisation, and the practice of humanising language, as well as to identify their correlation and practical significance. The research methods include systematic analysis and critical interpretation of academic literature, recent empirical studies, activist manifestos, as well as the method of data triangulation. The main findings of the research demonstrate the historical transformation of the labelling theory from the abstract concept of ‘deviant identity’ to empirically verified mechanisms such as ‘anticipated stigma’ and a person’s ‘master status’ based on a stigmatising characteristic. The effect of humanising language has been proved to be achieved on the basis of principles of a person-first approach with not only ethical but also scientific grounds, confirmed by empirical research. The shift to a respectful discourse is an essential condition for building a more equitable, effective, and humane justice system.
labelling theory, stigmatisation, deviant identity, deviation, anticipated stigma, penitentiary background, social reintegration, recidivism, humanisation of language
1. Alexander, M. (2010). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New Press.
2. Ariès, P. (1991). The hour of our death. Oxford University Press.
3. Bauman, R. A. (1996). Crime and punishment in ancient Rome. Routledge.
4. Beattie, J. M. (1986). Crime and the courts in England 1660–1800. Princeton University Press.
5. Becker, H. S. (1963). Outsiders: Studies in the sociology of deviance. Free Press.
6. Bernburg, J. G., & Krohn, M. D. (2003). Labeling, life chances, and adult crime: The direct and indirect effects of official intervention in adolescence on crime in early adulthood. Criminology, 41(4), 1287–1318. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2003.tb01020.x
7. Bos, A. E. R., Pryor, J. B., Reeder, G. D., & Stutterheim, S. E. (2013). Stigma: Advances in theory and research. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 35, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/01973533.2012.746147
8. Chiricos, T., Barrick, K., Bales, W., & Bontrager, S. (2007). The labeling of convicted felons and its consequences for recidivism. Criminology, 45(3), 547–581. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2007.00089.x
9. Clow, K. A., Ricciardelli, R., & Cain, T. L. (2012). Stigma-by-association: Prejudicial effects of the prison experience for offenders and exonerees. In D. W. Russell & C. A. Russell (Eds.), The psychology of prejudice: Interdisciplinary perspectives on contemporary issues (pp. 127–154). Nova Science Publishers.
10. Corrigan, P. W., Larson, J. E., & Rüsch, N. (2009). Self-stigma and the "Why try" effect: Impact on life goals and evidence-based practices. World Psychiatry, 8(2), 75–81. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2051-5545.2009.tb00218.x
11. Cox, A. (2020). The language of incarceration. Incarceration, 1(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/2632666320940859
12. Denver, M., Pickett, J. T., & Bushway, S. D. (2017). The language of stigmatization and the mark of violence: Experimental evidence on the social construction and use of criminal record stigma. Criminology, 55(3), 664–690. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12145
13. Des Forges, A. (1999). "Leave none to tell the story": Genocide in Rwanda. Human Rights Watch.
14. Gilmore, R. W. (2008). Forgotten places and the seeds of grassroots planning. In C. R. Hale (Ed.), Engaging contradictions: Theory, politics, and methods of activist scholarship (pp. 31–61). University of California Press. https://cultivatingalternatives.com/2012/10/24/forgotten-place-and-the-seeds-of-grassroots-planning-ruth-wilson-gilmore/
15. Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity. Prentice-Hall.
16. Haas, A. A. (2019). The artistic evolution of Japanese tattoo culture.
17. Hamari, H. (2011). Political correctness, euphemism, and language change: The case of 'people first'. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(3), 828–840. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.09.016
18. Hawthorne, N. (1878). The scarlet letter. James R. Osgood and Company. https://archive.org/details/scarletletter00hawt/page/n9/mode/2up
19. Herbert, U. (2003). National Socialist extermination policies: Contemporary German perspectives and controversies (Vol. 2). Berghahn Books.
20. Hirschfield, P. J., & Piquero, A. R. (2010). Normalization and legitimation: Modeling stigmatizing attitudes toward ex-offenders. Criminology, 48(1), 27–55. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2010.00179.x
21. Jensen, G.F. (2006). Labeling and identity. Criminology, 18(1), 121–129.
22. Keene, D. E., Smoyer, A. B., & Blankenship, K. M. (2018). Stigma, housing and identity after prison. The Sociological Review, 66(4), 799–815. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026118777447
23. Kershaw, I. (2016). Hitler: 1889-1936: Hubris. W. W. Norton & Company.
24. Kirk, D. S., & Sampson, R. J. (2013). Juvenile arrest and collateral educational damage in the transition to adulthood. Sociology of Education, 86(1), 36–62. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038040712448862
25. La Vigne, N. (2016, April 4). People first: Changing the way we talk about those touched by the criminal justice system. Urban Institute. https://justiceroundtable.org/news-item/people-first-changing-the-way-we-talk-about-those-touched-by-the-criminal-justice-system/
26. LeBel, T. P. (2012). Invisible Stripes? Formerly Incarcerated Persons’ Perceptions of Stigma. Deviant Behavior, 33(2), 89–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2010.538365
27. Lemert, E. (1951). Social pathology: A systematic approach to the theory of sociopathic behavior. McGraw Hill.
28. Link, B. G., & Phelan, J. C. (2001). Conceptualizing stigma. Annual Review of Sociology, 27, 363–385. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.363
29. Marable, M., & Mullings, L. (2009). Let nobody turn us around: Voices of resistance, reform and renewal: An African American anthology. Rowman & Littlefield.
30. Matsueda, R. L. (1992). Reflected appraisal, parental labeling, and delinquency: Specifying a symbolic interactionist theory. American Journal of Sociology, 97(6), 1577–1611. https://doi.org/10.1086/229940
31. McGuire, W. J. (1961). Resistance to persuasion conferred by active and passive prior refutation of same and alternative counterarguments. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 63(2), 326–332. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0048344
32. Mead, G. H. (1913). The social self. The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, 10(14), 374–380. https://doi.org/10.2307/2012910
33. Moore, K. E., Stuewig, J. B., & Tangney, J. P. (2016). The effect of stigma on criminal offenders’ functioning: A longitudinal mediational model. Deviant Behavior, 37(2), 196–218. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2014.1004035
34. Nemeroff, C., & Rozin, P. (2000). The makings of the magical mind: The nature and function of sympathetic magical thinking. In K. S. Rosengren, C. N. Johnson, & P. L. Harris (Eds.), Imagining the impossible: Magical, scientific, and religious thinking in children (pp. 1–34). Cambridge University Press.
35. Nemeroff, C. J., & Rozin, P. (1994). The contagion concept in adult thinking in the United States: Transmission of germs and of interpersonal influence. Ethos, 22(2), 158–186. https://doi.org/10.1525/eth.1994.22.2.02a00020
36. Pager, D. (2003). The mark of a criminal record. American Journal of Sociology, 108(5), 937–975. https://doi.org/10.1086/374403
37. Paternoster, R., & Iovanni, L. (1989). The Labeling perspective and delinquency: An elaboration of the theory and an assessment of the evidence. Justice Quarterly, 6(3), 359–394. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418828900090261
38. Radelet, M. (2017). The history of the death penalty in Colorado. University Press of Colorado.
39. Tannenbaum, F. (1951). Crime and the community. Columbia University Press.
40. Tittle, C. R. (1975). Deterrents or Labeling? Social Forces, 53(3), 399–410. https://doi.org/10.2307/2576582
41. Tran, N. T., Baggio, S., Dawson, A., et al. (2018). Words matter: A call for humanizing and respectful language to describe people who experience incarceration. BMC International Health and Human Rights, 18, Article 41. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12914-018-0180-4
42. Tyler, I. (2020). Stigma: The machinery of inequality. CPI Group.
43. Westervelt, S. D., & Cook, K. J. (2008). Coping with innocence after death row. Contexts, 7(4), 32–37. https://doi.org/10.1525/ctx.2008.7.4.32
44. Winnick, T. A., & Bodkin, M. (2008). Anticipated stigma and stigma management among those to be labeled “Ex-con.” Deviant Behavior, 29(4), 295–333. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639620701588081
