Essay On Stigmatization And Reintegrative Shaming

With the limitations of traditional criminological theories and the failings of the traditional criminal justice system, John Braithwaite’s reintegrative shaming theory provides a refreshing alternative to previous retributive and penal approaches (Braithwaite, 1989; White, Haines & Asquith, 2012). With its emphasis on cultural integration, the theory has shown utility amongst practitioners and academics (Kim & Gerber, 2012; Hay, 2001). However, despite its value, Braithwaite’s theory has not been without considerable critique (White, Haines & Asquith, 2012).

While many conservatives oppose the rehabilitative measures restorative justice offers offenders and demand more prisons and penalties, advocates for restorative justice counter this demand with research. Restorative justice advocates call for restitution rather than retribution. According to promoters for restorative justice, imposing harsh penalties on offenders and lengthening prison sentences is futile. “Critical theorists argue that the ‘old methods’ of punishment are a failure and that upwards of two-thirds of all prison inmates recidivate soon after their release” (Siegel, 2008, p. 188). While conservatives want to build more prisons and lock away more offenders for longer terms, supporters of restorative justice believe that a more rehabilitative approach is beneficial for not only the offender, but also the community. “The offender is asked to recognize that he or she caused injury to personal and social relations along with a determination and acceptance of responsibility. Only then can the offender be restored as a productive member of society” (Siegel, 2008, p. 190). Placing an offender in prison for any amount of time is shown to be harmful to the offender, their victim, and society. “Rather than reduce recidivism, harsher punishments may increase the likelihood of reoffending” (Siegel, 2008, p. 86). A conservative asking for more prisons would likely be met with a barrage of evidence explaining why restorative justice will and

Today we see five prevalent goals of corrections including retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, rehabilitation and restorative justice. Goals employed in corrections change over time depending on several factors including the trends of thought in society and issues within the prison system. Politics as well as prison overcrowding also factor into determining which goal dominates. Retribution has a long-standing history as the most culturally accepted goal because people fended for themselves prior to organized law enforcement (Bartollas, 2002, p. 71). Incapacitation, the dominant goal currently, eliminates the threat by placing the criminal outside society, typically through incarceration, and preventing the criminal from having the ability to commit additional crimes. Deterrence, like retribution, has continued as a goal throughout history. In an effort to reduce the risk of crime, law enforcement attempt to deter criminals from committing crimes. Rehabilitation gained enormous strength with an attempt at moral redemption of the offender. Reformists believed corrections needed a makeover as they worked towards rehabilitation. Rehabilitation places more focus on the individual rather than the act in an attempt to rehabilitate the person. America did not begin to look at the corrections system more substantially until the 1970s as the idea of rehabilitation fell (Bartollas, 2002, p. 75). Restorative justice promises to restore the victim as the offender

A sample of inmates released during this period was drawn from a list obtained from the Florida Department of Correction, for a total sample of roughly 3,793 offenders. Careful attention was given to securing a representative sample from each offense group. The offenders chosen were released from public and private state prisons after expiration of their sentences. The centralized idea of this study was to determine the differentiation between public and private state prisons focusing on recidivism. I have chosen two cases that reflect on the central issue of this topic and how they are treated by the Courts which can hopefully shed some light on the research problem as it exists in present society. These cases are based on

The base of the U.S judicial system is founded on justice and truth, yet there are flaws in the legal and prison systems. People go to prison for crimes they commit then released. They often come out angry and likely to repeat a crime again. To avoid a repeated offense, U.S prison system should implement an assimilation program, to ease convicts into society. So that assimilation is even more successful prisons should offer vocational education programs to inmates, to obtain working skills, benefiting them for the future once they are released.

Due to the general American mentality toward justice – which is largely retributive and not restorative, particularly for heinous crimes like murder – these changes would likely be best implemented in cases where the crimes are less severe. People who have been convicted of theft, arson, drug charges, and other minor offenses stand the best chance of being rehabilitated. To throw these nonviolent individuals into prisons with more serious offenders, and potentially with subhuman conditions, may lead to them becoming violent. At the very least, they are more likely to reoffend. Though an extreme case, Miami’s “mega-jail” houses 7,000 inmates, and most of them are on remand for relatively minor offenses – and yet the atmosphere is extremely violent (Theroux, 2011). If we can cut down on these instances through changes geared towards restorative justice, we stand a

Labelling and stigma has now more than ever become an increasing problem with cultural and social views being extrapolated onto domestic violence victims and mental health patients. Stigma is a concept that consists of three parts: self-stigma, structural stigma and public stigma. Public stigma is a culturally constructed view by society based on a strong disapproval of what is perceived to be different from the ‘norm’, thus making them a marginalised group (Corrigan & O’Shaughnessy, 2007, pp. 90-91). This type of stigma links in with structural stigma that has policies in place which exclude these types of people from further life opportunities and labels them as ‘different’. These two types of stigma intertwine with self-stigma that often

Jail and prison populations are swelling as a result of increased crime and sentencing in the criminal justice system. The criminal justice system has piles of cases that need to be sorted and suspects who need to proceed with their trials. It is clear that the system needs an adjustment. One significant method to reduce the population in jails and prisons is to changing the rehabilitation strategies. Rehabilitation is important in the criminal justice system, but even more significant in keeping individuals out of jail, out of prison, and out of trouble. Mass incarceration does not work, simply put. It has been utilized in the past and based on that, has been proven to not work effectively. The state of Virginia decided to do away with parole in the year 1995, causing increased prison inmates to remain in the system, even though they should be out paying their own taxes instead of taking them from taxpayers while sitting inside of a prison cell. An individual must serve at least eighty-five percent of his or her sentence whether or not that person has proven themselves to be accepted back into society (Roeder, et al, 2015). It is clear that this method is outdated and only increases the amount of money taxpayers must put towards the swelling prison system

4. The way I interpret the reintegrative philosophy, is a new beginning, or a second chance granted there may be some repeat offenders but over all to restore or to renew one’s stigmatization about themselves, and consider their value to society and not shaming them. The time has been served, and they have suffered the consequences.

Since the 1980’s, the HIV epidemic continues to affect individuals all over the world; the HIV virus can affect any individual regardless of their socioeconomic status. HIV is a human immunodeficiency virus that is believed to have originated in Africa during the 1920’s, however, it did not spread to other continents until the 1980’s. According to the center for disease control and prevention, HIV is most prevalent in African-American communities. Unfortunately, it appears that the HIV virus is increasingly affecting African American women with a low SES status. One’s SES status is determined by one’s social and economic standing; SES is often measured by one’s level of education and income. One’s socioeconomic status may determine how an individual

Most findings indicate that punishment, deterrence, incapacitation and restitution are ineffective ways to reduce crime. It is noted that if the same resource monies could be redirected rehabilitation, the cost to the tax- payer would be reduced over time (Gertz et al, 2005). Rehabilitative programs are the most effective in reaching our ultimate goal of reducing crime and reducing future criminal behavior which is the purpose of incarceration. The problem with rehabilitation is that it is the most difficult to proof effective and even more difficult to persuade policy makers and community members to fund (Pinard, 2010). There are at

Certain structures both primary and secondary reproduce forms of oppression that marginalize different groups of people into society. These include people of color, children, women, older adults, the poor and immigrants. In this paper we will explore the important topic of why stigma ties into social welfare. Not everyone is our society is accepting of those who require social welfare or are prepared to accept social welfare when they do need it. This is mostly due to due to stigma, ethics and neoliberal ideology and therefore not all those who require social welfare are able to experience the appropriate quality of life.

The essay will be discussing the topic chosen for the research project which is the social stigma that is behind seeking-mental help. The topic was selected due to an interest as to how people who try to seek psychological help get negatively labelled thus leading them to wanting to avoid seeking the help they need. Even if the consequence of not receiving the help may be severe or make their problems worse than they already are. It is important to understand why specifically people will not seek the help they need and when finding that reason, figure out what can be done to improve it/ make changes.

The idea of stigma and what it is like to be a stigmatized person was conducted by sociologist Erving Goffman. He analyzed how stigmatized individuals feel about themselves and their relationships with people that are considered “normal”. Stigmatized individuals are people who are not socially accepted and are constantly eager to alter their social identifies: physically deformed people, mentally ill patients, drug addicts, homosexuals, etc.

There are many stigmas, or misconceptions and misperceptions in our society which need to be shattered. I believe that one of the worse possible effects of stigma is that it causes those affected by psychological disorders, or mental illness, to crawl more deeply into themselves because it provokes a sense of shame. Stigma thrusts those suffering with mental illness into a sense of isolation, social exclusion, and discrimination. “Stigma can lead to discrimination … It may be obvious or direct … Or it may be unintentional or subtle…” (Staff). Stigma is often as big as the illness itself and I confess to having been a perpetuator of this dreaded thing, although not consciously aware and without the intent of furthering the harm of someone.