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Arrest history, stigma, and self-esteem: a modified labeling theory approach to understanding how arrests impact lives

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Abstract

Purpose

Modified labeling theory theorizes that when people acquire a label, personally held views about that label gain relevance and exert negative effects. We assessed whether being arrested reduces self-esteem to different extents based on the degree to which individuals hold stigmatizing beliefs about people with arrest records.

Methods

Adults living in the South Bronx, New York City (N = 532, 56% of whom had ever been arrested) indicated their level of agreement with statements about people with arrest records. We used exploratory factor analysis to identify categories of stigmatizing views, and calculated scores for the two following categories: “stereotype awareness” and “stereotype agreement.” Self-esteem was assessed with the Rosenberg self-esteem scale. Using fitted linear regression models, we assessed interaction between arrest history and each stigma score, and calculated mean differences representing the association between arrest history and self-esteem score, for those with stigma scores one standard deviation (SD) below and above the mean.

Results

For each type of stigma, participants with stigma scores one SD below the mean had similar self-esteem scores, regardless of arrest history. However, among participants with stigma scores one SD above the mean, those who had experienced an arrest had lower self-esteem scores than those who had not (mean difference = − 2.07, 95% CI − 3.16, − 0.99 for “stereotype awareness”; mean difference = − 2.92, 95% CI − 4.05, − 1.79 for “stereotype agreement”).

Conclusion

Being arrested affects self-esteem to a greater degree among persons who hold stigmatizing views about people with arrest records. These findings support a modified labeling theory of arrest-related stigma.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Bronx Defenders and its staff for recruiting the study sample, as well as all of the participants, who, in spite of demanding lives agreed to help advance our understanding of social justice by agreeing to participate in the interviews that made this report possible. The authors also acknowledge Huilan Tang for assistance with data analysis.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Sleep and Well-Being in High-Risk Youth Study (R01HL134856; PI: C. Hoven). Funding for the original Stress & Justice Study that generated the data used for this work was provided by the National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the data were drawn from the Stress & Justice Study (R01DA023733: 2009-2015 and R01DA024029: 2008-2014, PI: C. Hoven).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health, 715 Albany St., Boston, MA, 02118, USA

    Meghan L. Smith

  2. Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Global Psychiatric Epidemiology Group, New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Christina W. Hoven, Keely Cheslack-Postava, George J. Musa, Judith Wicks, Larkin McReynolds & Michaeline Bresnahan

  3. Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY, USA

    Christina W. Hoven, George J. Musa, Larkin McReynolds & Michaeline Bresnahan

  4. Department of Sociology, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA

    Bruce G. Link

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  1. Meghan L. Smith
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  2. Christina W. Hoven
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Contributions

All co-authors have made substantial contributions to study conception/design or to acquisition/analysis/interpretation of data, have participated in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content, have given final approval of the submitted manuscript, and have agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the material represented in the manuscript. Specific contributions were as follows: Conceptualization: MLS, CWH, BGL. Data curation: MLS, CWH, KC, JW, GJW, LM, MB. Formal analysis: MLS, KC. Funding acquisition: CWH. Investigation: MLS, CWH, KC, JW, GJM, LM, MB, BGL. Methodology: MLS, GJM, BGL. Project administration: JW, GJM. Supervision: CWH, BGL. Writing—original draft: MLS. Writing—review & editing: CWH, KC, JW, GJM, LM, MB, BGL.

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Correspondence to Meghan L. Smith.

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The Stress & Justice Study is comprised of two linked longitudinal studies: Maternal Incarceration and the Course of Child Psychopathology in the South Bronx and Paternal Criminal Justice Involvement and Substance Use in Children & Adolescents. These studies were approved by the Columbia University—New York State Psychiatric Institute Institutional Review Board.

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Smith, M.L., Hoven, C.W., Cheslack-Postava, K. et al. Arrest history, stigma, and self-esteem: a modified labeling theory approach to understanding how arrests impact lives. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 57, 1849–1860 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-022-02245-7

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