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Will I have to be reborn? Collective sensemaking of stigma among white-collar inmates

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Arora, NK 
Harvey, WS 
Roulet, TJ 

Abstract

We have a limited understanding of how individuals anticipate the experience of stigma, make sense of it as a group, and how such sensemaking trickles down to the individual level, especially for white-collar inmates who have experienced a drastic fall from grace. To address these issues, we draw on three waves of semi-structured interviews and focus group data with 70 inmates in a Federal prison in the United States over a period of 16 months. Our findings reveal that following collective sensemaking, inmates use varying tactics to either select, borrow, contribute, reinforce, disguise or maintain the status quo, which variably impact on their perceptions of their ability to both reassure others of their soundness of character and adapt their professional identity. Our work contributes to the sociology of stigma and white-collar crime by showing how high-status professionals collectively prepare for stigmatization and implications for their individual responses to stigma.

Description

Keywords

Journal Title

Work, Employment and Society

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0950-0170
1469-8722

Volume Title

Publisher

SAGE Publications