Perceptions of crime severity and stigma toward family members grieving the loss of a person to incarceration

ABSTRACT

Family members of incarcerated persons may experience grief related to the incarceration. We examined laypeople’s perceptions of family members grieving the loss of an individual to incarceration. Participants (N = 1095) were randomized to read vignettes that varied by grief trajectory (prolonged vs. resilient), race (Black vs. White vs. Latine), and crime type (violent vs. non-violent). Participants answered questions assessing grief response appropriateness, comfort providing support to the grieving person, beliefs that the grieving person should seek therapy, and how severe they believed the incarcerated person’s crime was. Results indicated that prolonged grief trajectories and greater perceived crime severity were associated with decreased ratings of grief response appropriateness. Participants were more likely to endorse the need for therapy-seeking for individuals with prolonged grief (vs. resilience). Participants were less likely to recommend therapy for Black (vs. White) individuals, and women were more likely to recommend seeking therapy than men. The results suggest stigma might exist toward family members grieving the loss of individuals who committed crimes perceived to be more severe by laypeople, which could contribute to negative bereavement outcomes.

KEYWORDS:

• Non-bereavement grief
• incarceration
• grief
• stigma
• crime severity

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Dr. Christine Robitschek for your help in structuring and disseminating the mass survey that allowed us to collect the data for this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability

The data utilized in this article was recently published in Death Studies (doi: 10.1080/07481187.2023.2175391) and was presented at the American Psychology-Law Society conference in March 2022 and March 2023. The data can be made available upon request.

Additional information

Funding

Time for this research was supported, in part, by funding from the National Institute of Mental Health [grant number L30 MH120575].