labelling theory

• labelling theorists are interested in how and why certain acts come to be defined or labelled as criminal. It is not the nature of the act that makes it deviant but societys reaction to the act.
• differential enforcement of the law:

  • police label groups as criminals
  • results in differential reinforcement where the law is enforced more against one group than against another.
  • officers typifications of the typical criminal lead to them concentrating on types of people that are more likely to offend - patrolling WC and ethnic minority areas
  • Pilivavin and Briar believe police make decisions to arrest based around their stereotypical ideas about a person's manner, dress, gender, class and ethnicity.
• Howard Becker:

  1. people commit deviant acts
  2. labelled as deviant
  3. person sees themselves and society sees them as deviant
  4. self-fulfilling prophecy
• Lemert:

  societial reaction is the main cause of crime.

  primary deviance: deviant act that has not been publicly labelled as criminal

  • caught by police or other members of society, labelled as deviant

  secondary deviance: as a result of being labelled, person internalises the label and acts accordingly by committing more deviant acts.
• deviance amplification sprial - Leslie Wilkins (1964)

  1. primary deviance
  2. isolation and alienation
  3. increased social reaction
  4. secondary deviance
  5. social reaction
  6. increased deviance
• strength:

  helps to understand and raise the issue of skewed police statistics. for example, police statistics show that working-class people are more likely to commit crime. However, labelling theory shows the WC people are more likely to be negatively labelled, leading to more arrests. This suggests, crime data reflects labelling rather than actual criminality.
• weaknesses:

  • only explains why crime may spiral when controlled, not why is occurs in the first place. For example, Jack Young's study shows how hippies engage in more taking behaviour after being labelled by police. But there is no explanation as to why they were smoking cannabis to begin with. Therefore, this explanation may explaian why crime continues and spirals but not why it occurs in the first place. This means that the theory cannot be used as an explanation of why crime occurs.
• weakness:

  • assumes we are determined by our labels. For example, when we are labelled as deviant, we will become deviant in indirect ways (joining a deviant subculture). However, there are many people who resist labels and are motivated to disprove their labels. This means, labels do nto affect everyone in the same way explaining that the theory is flaed as it does not take into consideration individual differences e.g. personalities.
• Lemberg:

  master status: the person labelled as deviant will become to see themselves as bad