Innocence as burden and resource: Adaptation and resistance during wrongful imprisonment
Drawing on theoretical scholarship on adaptation and resistance in prisons, I explore the significance and function of innocence—and the acute sense of non-belonging it triggers in the prison setting—in wrongfully-convicted men's responses to imprisonment. Using in-depth interviews with 15 exon...
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| Medienart: | Elektronisch Aufsatz |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
| Veröffentlicht: |
2023
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| In: |
Theoretical criminology
Jahr: 2023, Band: 27, Heft: 3, Seiten: 499-516 |
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Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
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| Verfügbarkeit prüfen: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Zusammenfassung: | Drawing on theoretical scholarship on adaptation and resistance in prisons, I explore the significance and function of innocence—and the acute sense of non-belonging it triggers in the prison setting—in wrongfully-convicted men's responses to imprisonment. Using in-depth interviews with 15 exonerated men in the United States, I argue that innocence functioned as a double-edged sword for the men as they adapted to their wrongful imprisonment: Innocence represented a social and psychological burden as men adjusted to prison life, but it simultaneously facilitated their resistance to formal and informal penal control. Through a discussion of how the men leveraged their innocence to distance themselves psychologically, socially, and symbolically from the prison world, I highlight how, despite being victims of egregious injustice, wrongfully-convicted men are also agentic resistors of the penal system. |
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| ISSN: | 1461-7439 |
| DOI: | 10.1177/13624806221112167 |
