Stigmatization of Psychological and Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Effects of Diagnostic Labeling in a Legal Context

<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>

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis (restricted to Georgia Southern)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Department of Psychology

Year dc:date.available

2015

Author dc:creator

• Burke, Panne

Contributors dc:contributor

• Amy Hackney
• Shauna Joye

• 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

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/1245

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu:etd-2332