Forced Interactions with Sheriff Deputies Over Time and Their Influence on Stigma and Self Identities among Individuals Convicted of Sex Crimes

Lisa L Sample,Brett Hurley,Carin Hyter,Brooke Cooley,Tusty Ten Bensel

doi:10.21428/88de04a1.dcb307ab

Abstract

This paper examined the perceptions of convicted sex offenders and their interactions with law enforcement over time. Specifically, we focused on how formal interactions influenced stigma management and self-identity transformation. For decades, scholars have proposed that identities and behaviors often result from interactions with others. Sex offender registration and notification laws force interactions between registrants and police agents for years, if not a lifetime. Given that desistance from sex offending is dependent on prosocial identity transformation, we analyzed interviews with 63 registrants to uncover how interactions with police promote or inhibit identity transformation over time. Our findings suggested interactions with police can influence the internalization of a âsex offenderâ label, can reaffirm non-offender role identities, but mostly have little to no effect on personal identity transformation over time.

Highlights

The term “convict” is a stigmatizing label that seeks to discredit one’s identity in society (Meisenbach, 2010)
This paper examined the perceptions of convicted sex offenders and their interactions with law enforcement over time
Given that desistance from sex offending is dependent on prosocial identity transformation, we analyzed interviews with 63 registrants to uncover how interactions with police promote or inhibit identity transformation over time

Summary

Introduction

The term “convict” is a stigmatizing label that seeks to discredit one’s identity in society (Meisenbach, 2010). Unlike stigmas based on physical or mental disabilities, a “convict” label can largely be managed through information management (Goffman, 1963), unless those “convicts” are people convicted of sex crimes. The boundaries of a “sex offender” label include cultural assumptions such as mental health disorders that require civil commitment after serving a criminal sentence. They are assumed to be at risk for reoffending regardless of treatment, similar to alcoholics consistently struggle with drinking behaviors. Various legal statutes may externally stigmatize people convicted of sex crimes, but that does not mean that these people internalize this label in a way that affects how they see themselves and behave (Evans & Cubellis, 2015). Experiences of discrimination because of a stigmatized group affiliation are considered “enacted stigma”; individuals can mitigate living a life as a stigmatized people by adopting and prioritizing role identities

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