Public Perceptions of the Stigmatization of Wrongly Convicted Individuals: Findings from Semi-Structured Interviews

Consider the following experience (as reported in Grounds, 2005): An exoneree walks into a supermarket in his community. As he enters the store, he hears a young girl say, "That's the man who was on the TV, Mommy" (p. 7). Immediately, the mother grabs her daughter and tells her not to go near the man. The exoneree, overwhelmed by this reaction, abandons his groceries and walks out of the store (Grounds, 2005). Looking at this encounter, it appears that stigma played a key role in determining how this wrongly convicted individual was perceived and responded to in this public venue.With the above experience in mind, we draw on Goffman's (1963) classic theory of stigma because it is a seminal benchmark for stigma research and continues to have relevant applications in present-day discussions of stigmatization. Particularly, stigma will be discussed in reference to wrongful conviction in order to lend insight into the discriminatory situations exonerees may encounter post-conviction. In addition to stigma theory, framing approaches related to in-group and out-group formations, as well as prognostic framing, will also be presented and explored. These approaches look at how the public creates groups of similar others and mobilize to exclude those who seemingly do not belong, which may lead to the stigmatization of exonerees.Stigma: Defining the "Other"Stigma is a discrediting label that "marks" an individual, indicating that he or she should be discounted from society (Goffman, 1963). In the minds of others, the marked individual is reduced from a whole and usual person to a tainted, disregarded one (Goffman, 1963, p. 3). Especially when this discrediting effect is extensive, the individual is viewed to be different from others and tied to uninviting markers such as bad, dangerous, or weak. In the previous example, for instance, the exoneree had been marked as deviant and interactions were immediately avoided based on the negative attributes associated with this group (e.g., bad, dangerous). Goffman (1963) argued that stigmas can take several forms, including abominations of the body, blemishes of individual character, and tribal stigmas.Abominations of the body are physical deformities or disabilities that render a person visibly different from others. As these individuals do not look like the rest of society, often due to factors outside of their own control, their every action is perceived differently as well. As Goffman (1963) explained, a blind individual is no longer perceived like everyone else: "his once most ordinary deeds-walking nonchalantly up the street, locating the peas on his plate, lighting a cigarette-are no longer ordinary" (p. 15). In contrast, blemishes of individual character are not readily visible to others and must be inferred once a discrediting attribute about the person is discovered. For example, learning that an individual has a psychological disorder, has been incarcerated, has an addiction, or is unemployed sets him or her apart from others by linking this person to undesirable characteristics (Link & Phelan, 2001). These undesirable characteristics are then used to discount all other positive attributes the individual might possess (Goffman, 1963). Should this blemished individual encounter any difficulties in life, others relate the difficulties to the stigmatizing attribute(s), as opposed to possible situational influences. Lastly, tribal stigmas are derived from belonging to a particular stigmatized group, such as an ethnic minority group, a foreign country, or the non-dominant religion in a society. In many cases, these individuals are born into their stigmas by being descendants of a "tribe" or group that is devalued by that society's dominant group(s). Regardless of its form, stigma spoils an individual's social identity and reduces his/her "life chances," causing him or her to face a negative or "unaccepting world" (Goffman, 1963, p. 19). In essence, stigmatized individuals are perceived as subhuman or not whole. …