Codes of Imprisonment: Signs, Signals and Masculinities

• In Event: WCCJ Panel 4 – Expressions of Masculinities

Abstract

In his seminal text ‘Codes of the Underworld’, Diego Gambetta employed signalling theory to argue that criminals act in specific ways to communicate information about their underlying qualities. Since then, the theory has been adapted to explore a range of criminological phenomena, including Paramilitary Style Attacks against young people in NI; police recruitment; drug dealers operating on social media; and internal secrecy in terrorist organisations. Although it has been widely applied, the theory has rarely been used to explore how men communicate masculinity. This paper will examine different signs and signals that young men in prison used to communicate their masculine credentials to the wider male audience. It looks at two areas: linguistic signalling (verbal and nonverbal), and embodiment.

Visibility is integral to masculine performance. Men must be visible to the specific audience that matters to them. The expression of masculinity therefore reflects practices and behaviours that are common in the cultural context in which men live. Men are active agents and adopt symbolic resources in attempts to fit in; masculinities become “situated, social and interactional accomplishments” (Messerschmidt, 1997: 4). In attempts to align themselves with their cultural context, men regulate their own and others’ behaviour and engage in practices of self-subjectification. This is exacerbated within Young Offenders Centres, because the prisoners’ lack of maturity means that they are both more violent and attach more importance to the activities, behaviours, and performances of masculinity. In prison, where the ever-present male gaze monitored and regulated masculinities and behaviour to an acute degree, signalling theory provided a useful lens through which to explore how young men communicated their masculine traits.

Author

• Conor Murray, Ulster University