Stigma
Definition
Goffman's term for a deeply discrediting attribute that reduces the bearer to a spoiled identity in others' eyes. A criminal conviction functions as a visible stigma, disclosed to employers, landlords, and public authorities, that constrains the person's legitimate options.
- Originator
- Erving Goffman
- Field
- Labelling theory, sociology of deviance
- Effect
- Spoiled identity in others' eyes
- Forensic-relevant example
- Criminal conviction disclosed to employers, landlords, authorities
Common questions
How does Goffman's concept of stigma connect to reoffending after a criminal conviction?+
Labelling theory argues that being publicly marked as a spoiled identity closes off legitimate opportunities, such as employment and housing, which can push a labelled person toward the deviant roles and networks that remain open to them, reinforcing rather than correcting the original behaviour.
Is stigma the same thing as social stigma attached to a crime type, or is it broader?+
Goffman's original concept is broader than criminal labelling; it covers any discrediting attribute, physical, behavioural, or group-based, that reduces a person's status, and a criminal record is treated as one specific and particularly consequential instance of it.
Related terms
- Deviant Career
- Becker's concept describing how an individual moves sequentially through stages of deviance, from initial rule-breaking through labelling and eventually into immersion in...
- Moral Entrepreneur
- Becker's term for an individual or group that campaigns to create or enforce moral rules, defining what will count as deviant and...
- Primary Deviance
- Rule-breaking behaviour that precedes or occurs without official labelling. Lemert argued that primary deviance is common and does not in itself alter...
- Secondary Deviance
- Deviant behaviour that arises as an adaptation to the social reaction to primary deviance. Once labelled, a person restructures their identity and...
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
- A situation in which a definition, though originally inaccurate or arbitrary, provokes behaviour that makes it accurate. In labelling theory, treating someone...