Introduction

This chapter focuses the research from Europe, North America and Australia will be presented that explores the impact of incarceration on prison staff and prisoners' sense of self-identity and the nature of their interactions with one another within the context of prison culture. Goffman's 1963 work Stigma has been influential in developing the study of how stigma is constructed and experienced. Ricciardelli and Clow's study of how stigma is experienced and attributed by male prisoners and prison staff in Canada and the consequences this may have in creating 'discredited identities' for these groups of people. The chapter considers the social environments of incarceration and significant aspects of prison life which shape the experience of people working and incarcerated in penal institutions. It explores how inmates in juvenile prisons in Germany perceive the fairness of imprisonment, with particular reference to concepts of justice, legitimacy, dignity and respect.