Date of Award
4-28-2023
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Brandon Ng
Abstract
There are inequities in the American criminal justice system, especially in the treatment of felons. The rate of individuals being incarcerated has been relatively stable over the past ten years (Minton & Zeng, 2021). As of 2020, 167 out of 100,000 Americans were incarcerated, equating to roughly 8,700,000 individuals annually (Minton & Zeng, 2021). This means that 8,700,000 individuals are stigmatized on an annual basis. The stigma surrounding felons can cause prolonged stress in the form of “discrimination, economic strain, and pervasive feelings of being unable to control exogenous circumstances that influence one’s life” (Purtle, 2013, p. 635). They experience housing and employment discrimination once they are released (Berry & Wiener, 2020). They have their political voice taken away by disenfranchisement and are treated unequally by society.
Recommended Citation
Maxwell, Danielle, "The Inescapable Stigma of a Label: Bias in the Perception of Felons’ Pain" (2023). Honors Theses. 1691.
https://scholarship.richmond.edu/honors-theses/1691
Included in
Cognition and Perception Commons, Community Psychology Commons, Human Factors Psychology Commons, Multicultural Psychology Commons, Personality and Social Contexts Commons, Social Justice Commons