A Sociological Approach To Understanding Crime And Deviancy

The labelling theory shows how crime is socially constructed based on labels created by the powerful, which is important for our understanding of who commits a crime as they show how the powerless can be labelled as deviant whilst powerful groups are not. This undermines the

Having looked at the problems in defining crime and deviance, this essay will now move onto looking at the difficulties in measuring crime.

Labeling theory makes no attempt to understand why an individual initially engaged in primary deviance and committed a crime before they were labeled; this then limits the scope of the theory’s explanations and suggests the theory may not provide a better account for crime. Labeling theory emphasizes the negative effects of labeling, which gives the offender a victim status. Also, the same likelihood exists for developing a criminal career regardless of deviance being primary or secondary. Furthermore, labeling theorists are only interested in understanding the aftermath of an individual getting caught committing crime and society attaching a label to the offender. This differs from the view of social learning theory, which seeks to explain the first and subsequent criminal acts. Many critics also argue that the racial, social, and economic statuses of an individual create labels, as opposed to criminal acts; this theory then fails to acknowledge that those statuses may factor into the labeling process. As a result, the above suggests that labeling theory does not provide a good account for crime and appropriately has little empirical support. Moreover, in terms of policy implications, labeling theory implies a policy of radical non-intervention, where minor offenses

Becker who was identified with labeling; he was a Chicago School student during the early 1940’s-50. He wrote two books on deviance, the “Outsiders” and “The Other Side”. He put deviant behavior into four different groups, the conformity, pure deviant, secret deviant, and the falsely accused. During this time, the self-report methodology also developed which was when the juveniles were able to report their own delinquent behavior on their own time. Which was a new way to know about different criminal/delinquent behavior. The author also discussed the two different versions of labeling theory that was the societal reaction and the secondary deviance. The societal reactions is how labels are applied, and whom labels apply to and how labels affect opportunities for those labeled. The secondary deviance is what the label means to the person its being label on and how the labels create further deviant behavior. Crime was defined as “social constructions”, which means that an individual may break a rule but it is not crime until society labels it as such. I feel that those who react to behavior attribute deviance. If society label a personal as deviant than they are left, looking for evidence to support their belief, which I do not believe, is

Many labeling theorists believe that labeling and reacting to offenders as criminals has dangers consequences and it helps deepen the criminal behavior

Frank Tannenbaum, often known as the father of labeling theory, said that “the process of making the criminal, therefore, is a process of tagging, defining, identifying, segregating, describing, emphasizing, making conscious and self-conscious; it becomes a way of stimulating, suggesting, emphasizing and evoking, the very traits that are complained of.” This process is known as the dramatization of evil (Vance 2014:2). Essentially, once a person is caught in delinquent activity, a “tag” or label is attached to that person. The tag identifies the person as a delinquent and makes people to react to the tag, not the individual (Williams and McShane 2014:112). The reaction that comes with the tag varies depending on how socially powerful the deviant is. The likelihood of a reaction is increased if a person is less socially powerful (in age or social class), a member of a minority with different values from the dominant group, or fairly isolated. Thus, the people that are more likely to receive a negative reaction to their deviance and get arrested are predominantly lower class, urban, young males (Williams and McShane

The labeling theory is society using terms to describe or classify a class or group of people. The people’s self-identify and behavior can be impacted and influenced by the words that are used. This leads to stereotyping and the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy as well, because people will believe that they can only live to be what society has told them they can be. People should not be labelled as criminal or violent before they even portray the behavior. It is not fair to them and the future they may or may not have.

17. Discuss the major differences in how the three theoretical approaches of Sociology view crime and deviance. Give examples of specific theories.

The third focus of labeling theory was on the consequences of being labeled and treated as criminal. As noted, in a rejection of offender-based explanations of crime, labeling theorists argued that reacting to people as “criminals” initiated processes that had the self-fulfilling prophecy of making the person become a criminal-someone more deeply entrenched in a criminal career

Labeling theorist ask five major questions about the reaction to delinquency: Why certain acts are defined as delinquent or status offenses, how others react to delinquency, what impact the reaction to delinquency has on further delinquency, why some juvenile offenders are more likely than others to experience the harsh/rejecting reaction, and are some juveniles more likely than others to respond to the harsh/rejecting reaction with further delinquency. is not until a label is given to someone by someone else in a position of social power that the person “becomes” a deviant. The labeling theory has three key elements that attempt to provide insight to the theory. Primary deviance is behavior that does not behavior that does not conform to the social norms, but the behavior might be temporary, fleeting, exploratory, trivial, or especially, concealed from most others. The person who commits the deviant act does not see him/herself as deviant; put differently, it is not internalized as a part of the person's self-concept. Secondary deviance is behavior that does not conform to the social norms, but the behavior tends to be more sustained over time. The person continues to do the deviant behavior even after being caught and labeled by a social institution. The person accepts the deviant label, incorporating it into the person's

Garland, D. (2002) Of Crimes and Criminals: The Development of Criminology in Britain. In M. Maguire, R. Morgan & Reiner (Eds.) the Oxford Handbook of Criminology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Crime and Deviance is the study of examined cultural norms by sociologists in societies. Sociologists pay close attention to the changes made over time and how laws relating to crime and deviance come about, alongside the effects caused on people and societies when these cultural norms are violated by individuals. A crime is defined as the breaking of a written law. An example of crime may be when an individual kills another person. Another example of crime is theft.

Marcionis and Plummer (2005) state that labelling theory highlights social response to crime and deviance. The main academics in this theory were Becker and Lemert. Lemert (1951) first established the view of deviant, and later developed by Becker (1963). Labelling theory has become a dominant theory in the explanation of

We all read labels, whether it is on a food product or some other item that we want to know more about what is contained within a package. The theory of labeling provides the same information about people, their involvement within daily life, and the ways that they behave. The main arguments within the labeling theory is that we need to as a society focus on the behavior of individuals that are labeling others as oppose to those who are committing crimes. Labeling theory argues that it is these efforts at social control that ultimately trigger the processes that trap individuals in criminal career. (253) This puts forth the idea that the “offender” will be labeled by those within the social environment in which they function within and

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