| STIGMA
PEOPLE LABELED AS "CRIMINAL" HAVE LONG BEEN STIGMATIZED AS DISHONEST AND UNTRUSTWORTHY. THEY MUST WORK CONSTANTLY TO COUNTER THESE PERCEPTIONS.
People who are labelled as criminal have long been stigmatized as dishonest, untrustworthy and otherwise disreputable – and must constantly work to counter this perception. Unlike stigmas that are seen as the result of accident or birth, criminal stigma is generally considered less deserving of social empathy or legal protection. But like other stigmatized conditions, criminal stigma gets negotiated in and contested in everyday settings.
ARTICLE
People with criminal records seeking employment face a dilemma: how to discuss their conviction(s) in a job interview. Rather than challenge the stigma itself, or speak truthfully from their vantage points, job seekers are often encouraged to recite superficial tropes that reinforce existing imbalances. This article explores how "conviction scripts" could be re-crafted to increase their transformative potential.
