Imprisonment and the Expected Value of Criminal Choice: A Specification and Test of Aspects of the Labeling Perspective

A fundamental position of contemporary labeling theory is specified and examined: from the viewpoint of an actor publically defined as deviant, increased public intervention will increase the expected value of deviant behavioral choice. Questionnaires administered to 234 black and white inmates in a prison for youthful offenders provide the basis for examining this position in the context of criminal choice, the expected value of criminal choice, and imprisonment. Curvilinear trends in the effects of imprisonment on the relative expected value of going crooked as opposed to going straight indicate that a modification of the linear expectations generated by the labeling perspective may be in order. An initial decrease in the relative expected value of criminal choice is found for blacks and whites after point-of-entry into prison, and this is identified as a rehabilitation effect. With continued imprisonment, however, this effect is reversed and the relative expected value of criminal choice increases. This increase is substantially more marked for whites than blacks, thus suggesting another modification of the labeling perspective: official intervention appears to have differential effects by race.