What once was sick is now bad: The shift from victim to deviant identity for those diagnosed with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder

Abstract

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is constituted by different networks and institutions. I demonstrate that while the symptoms associated with FASD do not differ from childhood to adulthood, their conceptualization and thus societal and governmental responses to individuals with FASD change dramatically. This research is theoretically grounded in Rose's work on psy-identities and Hacking's concept of a looping effect. To unpack the reconstitution of the FASD identity from childhood to adulthood I have identified two linked but distinctive loops - that of the promising child and the deviant adult. These two loops conceptualize the different institutions, stakeholders, and knowledges that take interest in the "FASD child" and those that constitute the "FASD adult" identity within the criminal justice system.