This edited volume brings together first person accounts from scholars, activists and policy workers who have directly navigated the stigmas attached to being labelled a so-called ‘criminal offender’ or ‘victim’. Using reflexive, phenomenological analysis of autoethnographic stories, the collection shows how individuals confront, negotiate and reshape their identities across varied life circumstances. The narratives reveal both the breadth of stigma within the criminal legal system and the different strategies people use to manage it—such as denial, secrecy, isolation, withdrawal and/or disclosure. In highlighting the diversity of stigma-related experiences the collection interrogates who truly benefits from these distinctions and asks why they persist despite their limitations.

This edited volume brings together first person accounts from scholars, activists and policy workers who have directly navigated the stigmas attached to being labelled a so-called ‘criminal offender’ or ‘victim’. Using reflexive, phenomenological analysis of autoethnographic stories, the collection shows how individuals confront, negotiate and reshape their identities across varied life circumstances. The narratives reveal both the breadth of stigma within the criminal legal system and the different strategies people use to manage it—such as denial, secrecy, isolation, withdrawal and/or disclosure. In highlighting the diversity of stigma-related experiences the collection interrogates who truly benefits from these distinctions and asks why they persist despite their limitations.