Labelled as ‘risky’ in an era of control: How young people experience and respond to the stigma of criminalized identities
| Author | Jo Deakin,Claire Fox,Raquel Matos |
| Published date | 01 July 2022 |
| Date | 01 July 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1477370820916728 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1477370820916728
European Journal of Criminology
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/1477370820916728
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Labelled as ‘risky’ in an era
of control: How young
people experience and
respond to the stigma of
criminalized identities
Jo Deakin
Claire Fox
University of Manchester, UK
Raquel Matos
Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Portugal
Abstract
The construction and labelling of groups of young people as ‘risky’ triggers a multifaceted and dynamic
social process of stigma that frequently results in reduced life chances and limited opportunities for
self-development. Drawing on case-study data from four European countries, this article focuses
on the ways in which stigma is reproduced through interactions and interventions that label young
people. Our analysis explores how young people experience and understand stigma, and how
they respond to it. Framed within a theoretical understanding of stigma as a form of power, we
examine its components and cyclical process, its role in shaping policies of social control, and its
consequences for groups of ‘risky’ young people. Our analysis builds upon and develops Link and
Phelan’s (2001) reconceptualization of stigma to include reference to young people’s reactions
and responses: alienation and marginalization; anger and resistance; empathy and generativity. We
argue that stigma acts primarily as an inhibitor of young people’s engagement in wider society,
serving to further reduce access to beneficial opportunities. However, some young people are able
to resist the label, and, for them, resistance can become generative and enabling.
Keywords
Youth justice, criminal justice interventions, youth work, stigma, labelling, risk, criminalization,
inequality, social control
Corresponding author:
Jo Deakin, Department of Criminology, School of Social Science, University of Manchester, Oxford Road,
Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.
Email: Jo.deakin@manchester.ac.uk
916728EUC0010.1177/1477370820916728European Journal of CriminologyDeakin, Fox and Matos
research-article2020
Article
2022, Vol. 19(4) 653–673
Introduction
The growth in neoliberal punitive policies over the last few decades (see Garland, 2001;
Muncie, 2005; Wacquant 1999) has had a disproportionate impact on the lives and expe-
riences of young people seen to be ‘at risk’ of criminal behaviour. The construction and
labelling of some groups of young people as ‘risky’ or ‘troubled’ is driven by frequent
reporting in the populist press about so-called out-of-control or anti-social young people
(Goldson and Muncie, 2015). This ‘risky’ label is often tied to concerns about a small
hard-core group of seemingly chaotic, dysfunctional or problem families (Crossley,
2015) and to discourses of disengagement that lay the blame on families and young peo-
ple (Fergusson, 2016). These discourses produce and reproduce negative labels and ste-
reotypes that drive disadvantage and trigger a multifaceted process of stigma (Link and
Phelan, 2001).
Across Europe, the policies that ensue from this negative construction involve mecha-
nisms of risk-factor prevention – from risk-based school discipline and policing strate-
gies to harsh sentencing and punitive intervention – targeting those young people who
are the ‘most marginalised and socially excluded’ (Muncie, 2005: 39). These policies
exercise the various operations of power that are designed to identify and manage risk by
applying ‘extralegal criminal labels’ (Lageson and Maruna, 2018: 113). Steeped in pro-
cesses that label and demonize, they perpetuate the socially shaped exclusion of those
affected, resulting in a cyclical reproduction of stigma and a reduction in opportunities
for ‘risky’ young people.
This article focuses on the ways in which stigma is reproduced through interactions
and interventions that label young people. Beginning with a review of literature, we
develop, theoretical constructions of stigma, drawing on, in particular, the work of Link
and Phelan (2001) and Tyler (2018), to frame the experiences of ‘risky’ youth as they
navigate relationships with authorities and interventions designed to ‘manage’ their
behaviour. The analysis presents data from four case studies conducted in Estonia,
Portugal, Spain and the UK, to explore the experiences, actions and responses of groups
of young people who are perceived, and treated, as ‘risky’ (Becker, 1963). Although
these countries have different socio-political and cultural contexts, the similarity of
young people’s experiences of, and responses to, stigma are striking. We argue that the
risk-based and controlling nature of some youth interventions that are designed to man-
age behaviour, instead, serve to perpetuate a cycle of stigma and reproduce conflict
between authorities and those young people deemed to be ‘risky’.
The final section explores responses to stigma by the young people involved in
our study. These responses can be characterized as existing on a continuum, ranging
from apathy and withdrawal, to active resistance in the form of transgressive behav-
iours, and actions that explicitly challenge the social norm. We argue that young
people’s responses to the labelling and discrimination attached to criminalized iden-
tities often serve to both amplify and reproduce the stigma they experience.1
However, as this article will go on to highlight, some young people were able to
resist the negative label and turn the stigmatizing effect of certain interventions into
generative experiences. This provides an important counterpoint to the, often bleak,
stigma narrative.
654 European Journal of Criminology 19(4)
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