What do you think the

Labelling Theory is?

Instead of looking at the causes of crime, they
look at how or why something is labelled as
criminal or deviant

Its not the nature of the act that makes it

deviant, but the reactions of others.
Howard Becker (1963)
Social groups create deviance by creating the rules
whose breaking constitutes deviance, and by applying
those rules to particular people and labelling them as
outsiders.

Can you think of an act that would be

criminal for one person but not for
another?
Why is this the case?

Moral Entrepreneurs

A person, group or organisation with the

power to create or change rules and
impose their morals, views and attitudes
on to others.
e.g. Politicians, Teachers, Parents,
Religious Leaders.

What do Moral Entrepreneurs create?

Outsiders - people who break the rules
Social control agencies (e.g police) to enforce
the rules and impose labels on offenders

Example - Platt 1969

Juvenile delinquency was created as a result

of a campaign by upper class Victorian moral
entrepreneurs. Its purpose was to protect
young people at risk

Who gets labelled?

Not everybody who commits an offence is punished for it,
and therefore they do not always get labelled.
Piliavin and Briar (1964) - police decisions to arrest youths is
mainly on their appearance.
Cicourel (1968) - Officers stereotypes lead to them
concentrate on certain groups of people results in a bias
(either class, gender or ethnicity). Vicious circle.

Official Statistics - Quantitative data analysis

Based on what we already know, do you

think that these statistics are
completely valid? Or are they bias?
Why?

Edwin Lemert (1951)

Two types of deviance:

Primary - not been publicly labelled as deviant
Secondary - labelled as deviant as a result of social
reaction. Once they are labelled, it becomes their
master status. Called a stigma.

Example

Two different married men have an affair

with two different women (primary deviance).
They are not the only two men to have an
affair but one of their wives finds out. The
reaction to the affair and the label of an
adulterer is what makes it secondary deviance.

Secondary Deviance

A change in status may lead to a person

questioning themselves. Are they going to start
living up to their label? e.g. ASBOs are seen as a
badge of honour for some juvenile delinquents.
As a result of secondary deviance a person may
turn to a deviant subculture. What link does this
have to another theory?

Deviance Amplification
Trying to control the deviance only produces more and
more deviance.
Stanley Cohen (1972) - Mods and Rockers. The press
exaggerating created what we call moral panics leading
to higher prosecution levels and thus more deviance. The
people are the centre of the moral panic are called folk
devils.
Links to Lemerts idea of secondary deviance.

Most people see the labelling theory as negative...

John Braithewaite (1989) identifies a positive role:
Disintegrative shaming - labelling both the person and the
act
Reintegrative shaming - labelling the act not the person.
This takes the stigma away from the person but still lets
them know what they did was wrong. Encourages forgiveness
and reintegration into society.
What theory does this link to?

Evaluations
+ highlights the reasons for differences in deviance between cultures
+ Shows that the law is odten enforced in a discriminatory way
+ Shows that attempts to control can often backfire
+ Links to methods and highlights the main weaknesses of official statistics.

- Deterministic - not everybody who is labelled continue to be deviant

- Gives the offender a victim status and ignores the real victims
- Ignores people who actively pursue deviance

Now we have looked at:

functionalism
Strain theory
subcultural theories
labelling theory
What are the similarities and what are
the differences?

Examine the role of access

to opportunity structures
in causing crime and
deviance
12 marks

1. Outline Mertons strain to anomie theory. (Note the idea that

deviance results from unequal access to legitimate opportunities)
Identify different forms of deviance
Examine sub cultural theories using Cohen to evaluate Merton
Link Cohens idea of status frustration to blocked opportunities
and explain how subculture provides an illegitimate opportunity
structure
Use Cloward and Ohlin to show that access to illegitimate
opportunity structures is unequal and how this gives rise to
three different subcultures
Include evaluation e.g. functionalist assumptions of Cohen and
Merton - does everybody have shared goals? also their failure to
explain other types of crime (corporate)