Taking Back a Justice-Impacted Identity: From Person with a Legal Conviction to Professor Ex

• In Event: Convict Criminology Panel #4: Perspectives on Stigma

Abstract

Millions of people walk the streets of the United States and internationally while enduring the long-term consequences and stigma of criminal convictions. Yet, this study identifies an expanding movement of system-contacted people who, having engaged with higher education, are determined to help their oppressed peers through activist-scholarship, activism, and advocacy, the System-Affected Academic (SAA) movement (Tietjen, [forthcoming]). Using the concepts of role exit and making good, the professional ex moves from stigmatization to embracing stigma in order to help others. Further, this study explores how formerly-incarcerated social science academics embraced their backgrounds while working towards social justice for fellow system affected people. This research found that (1) SAA individuals changed their lifestyles to align with educational pursuits: during and/or after incarceration; (2) the majority embraced their stigmatized pasts (yet in different ways); and (3) most shifted towards more critical perceptions and framings of prison after higher education.

Author

• Grant Tietjen, University of Washington Tacoma