Devah Pager's research on employment prospects for individuals with a prior criminal record exemplifies the serious consequences
for certain stigmas. If an individual with a criminal record cannot easily find a job and decides to return to committing crimes to support his or her family, what sociological idea is this an example of?
The answer to the question: What socioogical idea is this an example of? Would be: Recidivism.
Explanation:
Recidivism is explained in sociology as the tendency of a person to go back to a specific negative behavior (such as criminal acting) even after he/she has been on the receiving end of the negative consequences of such behavior, or has been trained in order to suppress it. In this case, we have the research of Devah Pager on employment and management of people who have a criminal record. These people have been stigmatized, and therefore are going through the negative effects of their wrong behavior. However, because of the circumstances that surround them, meaning they cannot find employment even though they have already been retrained not to regress, these people display what is known as recidivism, or the recurrence of the negative behavior that had been supressed before (criminal activity).
