Factors influencing delabeling inconsistency

Abstract

The public stigmatization of ex-deviants, in particular ex-convicts and ex-mental patients, was conceptualized from the labeling theoretical perspective as "delabeling inconsistency" (DI). A questionnaire was administered to a sample of 281 residents of Henry County, Virginia in order to identify factors that contributed to the DI of ex-convicts and ex-mental patients (i.e., the respondents' stigmatization of these ex-deviants). The variables proposed to be related to the dependent variable - DI - were: #1) the respondent's age; #2) the respondent's highest achieved educational levels; #3) the degree of dangerousness that the respondent attributes to the ex-deviant; #4) the amount of interaction that the respondent attributes to a total institution (e.g., a prison or a mental hospital) in having completely treated the ex-deviant (e.g., an ex-convict or an ex-mental patient); #6) the degree of responsibility that the respondent attributes to the ex-deviant for his behaviors; and, #7) the degree of seriousness that the respondent attributes to the ex-deviant's former deviance. Using path analysis, it was found thats dangerousness (variable #3) and seriousness (#7) were directly related to the DI of both ex-convicts and ex-mental patients; interaction (#4) and effectiveness (#5) were inversely related to the DI of both ex-convicts and ex-mental patients; education (#2) was inversely related to the DI of ex-mental patients and was essentially unrelated to the DI of ex-convicts; responsibility (#6) had an inverse relationship with the DI of ex-mental patients and a direct relationship with the DI of ex-convicts; and, age (#1) had a negligible relationship with the DI of both ex-convicts and ex-mental patients. The variable that materialized as the most influential independent and intervening variable with the DI of both ex-convicts and ex-mental patients was dangerousness (#3).