1/8/2024 0 Comments Labelist theoryLemert’s work would later prove to be a valuable theoretical foundation for labeling theories of general deviance, but it was Becker 1963 that would be more influential to criminologists, because it laid out, in very clear form, labeling theory positions on the nature of deviant acts, how some behaviors get to be labeled as deviant, and what happens when persons are labeled as deviant. The unique theoretical positions that labeling theory offered about crime and deviance can best be understood by careful reading of some “primary sources.” One of these sources is Lemert 1951, a general treatment of social problems and social deviance that first introduced the theoretical importance of the distinction between primary and secondary deviance. These reactions to crime, or labels, occur in processes at different levels of aggregation-the individual, the institutional, and the macro (state or national rule making)-and how labeled persons respond to those labels. Labeling theorists are generally uninterested in the causes of crime, and are more interested in the reactions to crime. ![]() Whether the causal factors are biological (e.g., atavism), psychological (e.g., impulsivity), or sociological (e.g., bad peers or neighborhoods), the scientific study of crime and deviance has, for the most part, focused on those factors that produce it, and on the essential differences between the “normal” and the “deviant.” Labeling theory brought a fresh, new perspective to this point of view. Since the advent of the “positive school” of criminology, beginning with the work of Cesare Lombroso in the late 1800s, scholars of crime have been primarily interested in studying what factors cause individuals to commit acts of crime and deviance. The second is the secondary deviance hypothesis, which essentially argues that deviant labels create problems that the one being labeled must adjust to and deal with, and that under certain conditions labels can lead to greater involvement in crime and deviance. First is the status characteristics hypothesis, which states that labels are imposed in part because of the status of those doing the labeling and those being labeled. As such, they are said to be “labels” because they have the quality of attaching a name or a signature to someone or some behavior-hence the name “labeling theory.” From this, labeling theory can be understood as involving two main hypotheses. All of these very diverse actions have one thing in common: they are all reactions to crime. These responses or reactions typically focus on three sets of actors: (1) informal social others, such as the friends, parents, or partners of persons committing crimes, and who disapprove of the offender’s behavior (2) organizations or institutions such as the criminal justice system, whose function it is to “do something about” crime and (3) those who perceive a threat by some behavior and want to see legislation passed to outlaw it. Labeling theories of crime are often referred to as social reaction theories, because they focus primarily on the consequences of responses or reactions to crime. Labeling theory has become part of a more general criminological theory of sanctions that includes deterrence theory’s focus on the crime reduction possibilities of sanctions, procedural justice theory’s focus on the importance of the manner in which sanctions are imposed, and defiance/reintegrative theory’s emphasis on individual differences in the social bond and persons’ emotional reaction to the label. Although there were periods when interest in labeling process was in decline, particularly after 1985, labeling theory has had a bit of a resurgence in recent years. ![]() It was also responsible for spurring countless empirical studies over this time period. ![]() The theory represented both a theoretical and methodological break from the past, and it could reasonably be argued that it was one of the dominant theoretical perspectives in the study of crime and deviance from the late 1960s until the early 1980s. Originating in the mid- to late-1960s in the United States at a moment of tremendous political and cultural conflict, labeling theorists brought to center stage the role of government agencies, and social processes in general, in the creation of deviance and crime. Labeling theory is a vibrant area of research and theoretical development within the field of criminology.
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