Primary And Secondary Deviance

• •Primary deviance is deviance committed that has not been labelled. Lemert argues that most people commit some low level deviance – e.g. underage drinking, speeding etc. The reasons for this deviance are many and varied, and therefore there is little point trying to explain it
• Deviance- Lemert

  •Secondary deviance is deviance that occurs once someone has been publically labelled. It starts to become a significant part of someone’s identity – the cycle can be hard to break.
• Secondary deviance is deviance that is labelled by society.

  •It starts to become a significant part of someone’s identity•This labelling can involve shame, stigma and social isolation. People may come to see a person only in terms of the label their ‘master status’ – criminal, thief, junkie etc.•This can provoke a crisis in identity for the individual. One way to resolve this is for the individual to accept the deviant label and act as the world expects them to – creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
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• What are the consequences of secondary deviance… labelling!

  ••Secondary deviance is self-reinforcing – the more someone embraces deviant behaviour, the more they are likely to be shunned by others, confirming outsider status.•E.g. once someone has been to prison, it may be so hard to find legitimate work after release that they are forced to return to crime – confirming the deviant identity once more and leading to a potential ‘deviant career’.
• Supporting evidence for secondary deviance: Jock Young (1971)


  •Young studied hippy marijuana users in Notting Hill.•Initially drugs were peripheral to their lifestyle – primary deviance.•However, persecution and control by police led the hippies to increasingly see themselves as outsiders.•Drug use became a more central feature of their lifestyle, inviting further police attention and creating a self fulfilling prophecy.