Stigmatization in a French Educational (Closed) Facility – A Goffmanesque analysis

This article is based on a monograph concerning an Educational (Closed) Facility (CEF in French) based on an ethnography conducted from the perspective of an educator. In France, within their experience of imprisonment, minors placed in CEF are subjected to various stigmatization processes. These represent the prejudices of a local population, but also the representations of educational and social work professionals. Stigmatization is related to the three categories suggested by Goffman in ‘Stigma’. It is also shaped by the different points of view suggested by Goffman in ‘Asylums’. Finally, it concerns the reasons that force a minor to enter a CEF, but also the minor’s academic attainment.