People with criminal records seeking employment face a dilemma: how to discuss their conviction(s) in a job interview. Convicted job seekers are encouraged to draft, revise, and rehearse their “conviction scripts” and to approach their delivery as a Goffmanian performance. Drawing from participant observation within a nonprofit employment program in Southern California, this article analyzes job seekers’ attempts to craft narratives that will satisfy employers’ curiosities and concerns, with the assistance of professional coaches. I find that rather than challenge criminalizing practices or stigma itself, job seekers are encouraged to dissociate from criminal stigma and develop narratives that reinforce dominant frameworks of personal responsibility, remorse, and rehabilitation. They also regularly veer, however, from these conventions, in search of narratives that more accurately explain and contextualize their decisions. I argue that the act of scripting convictions is thus a political process in motion, a negotiation of power, with real life consequences. While at present, conviction scripting tends to reproduce the inequalities that underlie the criminal punishment system, the article concludes by exploring how criminalized people could craft scripts that contribute to their liberation. [stigma, criminalization, race, criminal records, employment]

中文翻译：

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编写定罪脚本：控制犯罪污名的权力和阻力

有犯罪记录的求职者面临两难困境：如何在求职面试中讨论他们的定罪。鼓励被定罪的求职者起草、修改和排练他们的“定罪剧本”，并将其交付视为戈夫曼式的表演。本文根据南加州一个非营利性就业计划中的参与者观察，分析了求职者在专业教练的协助下，试图制作满足雇主好奇心和担忧的叙述的尝试。我发现，与其挑战刑事化做法或污名本身，不如鼓励求职者摆脱犯罪污名，并发展叙事，强化个人责任、悔恨和康复的主导框架。然而，他们也经常偏离这些惯例，寻找能够更准确地解释和背景化他们的决定的叙述。我认为，编写信念的行为因此是一个动态的政治过程，一个权力的谈判，具有现实生活的后果。虽然目前，定罪脚本倾向于重现构成刑事处罚系统基础的不平等，但本文最后探讨了被定罪的人如何编写有助于他们获得解放的脚本。[ 文章最后探讨了被定罪的人如何制作有助于他们解放的脚本。[ 文章最后探讨了被定罪的人如何制作有助于他们解放的脚本。[污名、定罪、种族、犯罪记录、就业]