Stigma is a powerfully negative label that greatly changes a person’s self-concept and social identity. Stigma operates as a master status, overpowers other aspects of a social identity, so that a person is discredited in other people’s minds and becomes socially isolated.
Retrospective labeling is interpreting someone’s past in light of present deviance. For example, if a person is presently abusing their child/children retrospective labeling implies that at some point the abuser has been abused during their childhood. Retrospective labeling has been relevant in the Section 718.2(e) of the Criminal Code, as well as the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. Gladue, [1999] 1 S.C.R. 688, where Gladue (1999) asks judges to apply a method of analysis that recognizes the adverse background cultural impact factors that many Aboriginals face.
Projective labeling is a deviant identity used to predict future actions. For example, there are current stigmas with minority groups and more specifically Aboriginal groups with respect to use of alcohol. An amendment in The Indian Act (1927) states the prohibition of anyone (Aboriginal or otherwise) from soliciting funds for Aboriginal legal claims without special license from the Superintendent General. The amendment is put in place to stop the sale of alcohol by Aboriginals peoples to control deviant behavior. The amendment labels all Aboriginals will have deviant behavior with the continuance of alcohol consumption and thus a preventative measure inhibits any use of alcohol for the projective deviant group.
References
Department of Justice Canada. (2010). The Indian Act. Retrieved from
http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/I-5/20101104/page-0.html?rp2=SEARCH&rp3=SI&rp1=indian%20act&rp4=all&rp9=cs&rp10=L&rp13=50#idhit1
Judgements of the Supreme Court of Canada. (2010). R. v. Gladue, [1999] 1 S.C.R. 688.
Retrieved from http://csc.lexum.umontreal.ca/en/1999/1999scr1-688/1999scr1-688.html
No comments:
Post a Comment