Over 50% of inmates have mental health problems (James & Glaze, 2006) and specific diagnostic labels have been shown to adversely affect sentencing outcomes (e.g., Edens, Desforges, Fernandez, & Palac, 2004). We applied social categorization, attribution theory, and psychological essentialism to clarify the ways diagnostic labels perpetuate stigmatization of defendants by assessing sentencing and facility recommendations, future dangerousness predictions, and defendant controllability and stability attributions. These measures were administered after participants read a vignette describing a crime where the perpetrator varied according to the diagnostic labels: Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD), Schizophrenia, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). These labels were associated with more psychiatric facility recommendations compared to a no-label control condition, and ADHD was associated with more prison recommendations compared to the other labels. Controllability attributions were significantly different when ADHD and no-label were compared to ASPD, Schizophrenia, and ASD, and when Schizophrenia was compared to ASD. Stability attributions were significantly different between the no-label condition and each of the diagnostic labels. These findings suggest that jurors may consider certain labels as mitigating evidence when making legal decisions, whereas other labels may be less mitigating.
","abstract_html":"<p>Over 50% of inmates have mental health problems (James & Glaze, 2006) and specific diagnostic labels have been shown to adversely affect sentencing outcomes (e.g., Edens, Desforges, Fernandez, & Palac, 2004). We applied social categorization, attribution theory, and psychological essentialism to clarify the ways diagnostic labels perpetuate stigmatization of defendants by assessing sentencing and facility recommendations, future dangerousness predictions, and defendant controllability and stability attributions. These measures were administered after participants read a vignette describing a crime where the perpetrator varied according to the diagnostic labels: <em>Antisocial Personality Disorder </em>(ASPD), <em>Schizophrenia</em>, <em>Autism Spectrum Disorder </em>(ASD), and <em>Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder </em>(ADHD). These labels were associated with more psychiatric facility recommendations compared to a no-label control condition, and ADHD was associated with more prison recommendations compared to the other labels. Controllability attributions were significantly different when ADHD and no-label were compared to ASPD, Schizophrenia, and ASD, and when Schizophrenia was compared to ASD. Stability attributions were significantly different between the no-label condition and each of the diagnostic labels. These findings suggest that jurors may consider certain labels as mitigating evidence when making legal decisions, whereas other labels may be less mitigating.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Burke, Panne"],"institution":null,"degree_name":null,"degree_level":"Thesis (restricted to Georgia Southern)","degree_discipline":"Department of Psychology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Amy Hackney","Shauna Joye"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2015,"date_issued":"2015-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2015-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:28:22Z","subjects":["ETD","Antisocial Personality Disorder","Schizophrenia","Autism Spectrum Disorder","Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder","Diagnostic labeling","Stigma","Social categorization","Clinical Psychology","Cognition and Perception","Criminology and Criminal Justice","Other Legal Studies","Other Linguistics","Other Psychology","Other Social and Behavioral Sciences","Personality and Social Contexts","Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/1245","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Amy Hackney","Shauna Joye"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Burke, Panne"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2015-04-15T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Department of Psychology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis (restricted to Georgia Southern)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["ETD","Antisocial Personality Disorder","Schizophrenia","Autism Spectrum Disorder","Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder","Diagnostic labeling","Stigma","Social categorization","Clinical Psychology","Cognition and Perception","Criminology and Criminal Justice","Other Legal Studies","Other Linguistics","Other Psychology","Other Social and Behavioral Sciences","Personality and Social Contexts","Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/1245"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Over 50% of inmates have mental health problems (James & Glaze, 2006) and specific diagnostic labels have been shown to adversely affect sentencing outcomes (e.g., Edens, Desforges, Fernandez, & Palac, 2004). We applied social categorization, attribution theory, and psychological essentialism to clarify the ways diagnostic labels perpetuate stigmatization of defendants by assessing sentencing and facility recommendations, future dangerousness predictions, and defendant controllability and stability attributions. These measures were administered after participants read a vignette describing a crime where the perpetrator varied according to the diagnostic labels: Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD), Schizophrenia, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). These labels were associated with more psychiatric facility recommendations compared to a no-label control condition, and ADHD was associated with more prison recommendations compared to the other labels. Controllability attributions were significantly different when ADHD and no-label were compared to ASPD, Schizophrenia, and ASD, and when Schizophrenia was compared to ASD. Stability attributions were significantly different between the no-label condition and each of the diagnostic labels. These findings suggest that jurors may consider certain labels as mitigating evidence when making legal decisions, whereas other labels may be less mitigating.
"]},{"key":"dc:source","label":"Dc Source","values":["APA 6th Format: Burke (2015) / (Burke, 2015) Burke, P. A. (2015). Stigmatization of psychological and neurodevelopmental disorders: Effects of diagnostic labeling in a legal context (Master's thesis)."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Stigmatization of Psychological and Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Effects of Diagnostic Labeling in a Legal Context"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Amy Hackney","Shauna Joye"],"dc:creator":["Burke, Panne"],"dc:date.available":["2015-04-15T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Over 50% of inmates have mental health problems (James & Glaze, 2006) and specific diagnostic labels have been shown to adversely affect sentencing outcomes (e.g., Edens, Desforges, Fernandez, & Palac, 2004). We applied social categorization, attribution theory, and psychological essentialism to clarify the ways diagnostic labels perpetuate stigmatization of defendants by assessing sentencing and facility recommendations, future dangerousness predictions, and defendant controllability and stability attributions. These measures were administered after participants read a vignette describing a crime where the perpetrator varied according to the diagnostic labels: Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD), Schizophrenia, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). These labels were associated with more psychiatric facility recommendations compared to a no-label control condition, and ADHD was associated with more prison recommendations compared to the other labels. Controllability attributions were significantly different when ADHD and no-label were compared to ASPD, Schizophrenia, and ASD, and when Schizophrenia was compared to ASD. Stability attributions were significantly different between the no-label condition and each of the diagnostic labels. These findings suggest that jurors may consider certain labels as mitigating evidence when making legal decisions, whereas other labels may be less mitigating.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/1245"],"dc:source":["APA 6th Format: Burke (2015) / (Burke, 2015) Burke, P. A. (2015). Stigmatization of psychological and neurodevelopmental disorders: Effects of diagnostic labeling in a legal context (Master's thesis)."],"dc:subject":["ETD","Antisocial Personality Disorder","Schizophrenia","Autism Spectrum Disorder","Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder","Diagnostic labeling","Stigma","Social categorization","Clinical Psychology","Cognition and Perception","Criminology and Criminal Justice","Other Legal Studies","Other Linguistics","Other Psychology","Other Social and Behavioral Sciences","Personality and Social Contexts","Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics"],"dc:title":["Stigmatization of Psychological and Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Effects of Diagnostic Labeling in a Legal Context"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Department of Psychology"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis (restricted to Georgia Southern)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:28:22Z"}