Women's lives after life imprisonment in the shadow of notoriety

Based on a longitudinal study of life-sentenced prisoners in England and Wales, this article explores the disruptive impact of having a murder conviction on the re/integration of women lifers, once released into the community. As a way of understanding these challenges, it draws E Goffman's work on stigma, and critical scholarship on the ‘stigma machine’ and ‘stigma power’, to emphasise how the nature of the offence matters for women lifers post-release. In the shadow of extra-legal media narratives about their offence and personhood, which content, timing and audience they cannot anticipate or control, women lifers tried to negotiate their notoriety. This article explains the resulting ‘spoiled identity' that they felt was incongruous with their recent histories and self-narratives, but which loomed over them in unpredictable and long-lasting ways.