Document Type
Dissertation
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Major
Criminology and Criminal Justice
Date of Defense
4-17-2025
Graduate Advisor
Marisa Omori, Ph.D.
Committee
Adam Boessen, Ph.D.
Katie Quinn, Ph.D.
Beth Huebner, Ph.D.
Abstract
In The Presentation of Self, Goffman (1959) uses the metaphor of theatre to describe how individuals maintain a stable self-image by performing social roles. Despite a robust body of work regarding dramaturgical presentations of self, few scholars have teased apart how context might matter for the kinds of performances people are able to display and the identity work in which they engage. Namely, total institutions, such as prisons, might restrict individuals’ access to limited kinds of performances and identity work. With rehabilitative programs increasing within these punitive spaces (Garland, 2001; Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1995), tensions between rehabilitation and punishment change the relationship between social roles and identity work. In this dissertation, I ask the research question: What is the relationship between social roles and identity in a correctional context? This study utilizes over 170 hours of ethnographic observations of currently incarcerated men in a medium security prison to investigate how role-taking in a prison theatre program influences their identity change. In line with the dramaturgical perspective, I examine a setting in which currently incarcerated people are taking on different roles, both literally as characters in a play and figuratively as they embody social roles. This work pays explicit attention to the carceral context whereby tensions between different correctional goals of rehabilitation and punishment may shape role access and identity work. Findings suggest that the carceral context provides opportunity for punitive practices to invade rehabilitative programs, and thus shape the programmatic experience and participant’s access to social roles. Further, insights from the dissertation uncovers how the kinds of audiences that individuals perform for encourage the practice of role distance and result in participants’ “role purgatory.” Finally, the dissertation closes by considering how the art form that participants engage in facilitate opportunities for the expression of moral identities. This project has theoretical implications for understanding potential mechanism(s) of how individuals desist from crime by incorporating social roles and identity work into understandings of stigmatized identities. The policy implications of this study include potential changes for how the criminal justice system deploys in-prison programming to rehabilitate individuals and encourage the desistance process.
Recommended Citation
Inzana, Victoria, "Performances in Prison: Identity Transformations Through Role-Taking" (2025). Dissertations. 1499.
https://irl.umsl.edu/dissertation/1499