Deconstructing Stigma in Discourse on Families Affected by Incarceration

Abstract

This paper examines recent attempts by academics and activists to shed light on the collateral consequences the criminal justice system has on families of offenders and to challenge the legitimacy of seeing these collateral damages as part of the "war on crime". In attempting to position families of offenders as victims of the system, advocates often encounter stigmatizing assumptions, while social and political discourses that identify these families as marginal create barriers to challenging policies that have detrimental effects on families. Commonly, academics and claims-makers who attempt to draw attention to the issues facing families use a rhetoric that emphasises innocence and points to the role families can play in crime reduction-justifying services for families and children as helpful in reducing recidivism and decreasing the likelihood of intergenerational crime. I examine the dilemmas caused by engaging in cost-benefit analyses and employing a neo-liberal rhetoric of risk reduction to challenge policies that harm families. I argue that challenging stigma and shifting conversations about collateral consequences requires a discourse of inclusivity and human rights rather than the exclusionary language found in dominant crime-reduction ideologies.