Deviance is Merely a Label Applied by Society to the Acts of Others

Deviance is Merely a Label Applied by Society to the Acts of Others

Interactionists consider that when examining deviance it is just as

important to look at those who define the act as deviant as it is to

look at the act itself. They would argue that it is the reaction of

society that determines how deviant an act is, if at all.

Becker's labelling theory suggests that deviance is actually created

by the social groups which create and promote norms and values which

are deviated from, rather than the act itself. He says that by

applying these rules to outsiders and labelling them as deviant,

deviance is created - therefore deviance is not created by the

individual who carries out the act, it is created by the labels which

are attached by others to that act. An example used to demonstrate

this theory could be nudity - alone in a bathroom nudity it is

accepted, but if a stranger walked in it would be considered deviant.

However in nudist resorts nobody wears clothes and this is seen as

accepted within the resort, but possibly deviant to those outside of

the resort. How deviant the act of nudity is depends upon how it is

interpreted by the social audience. Becker argues that this is how

deviance is in fact created, because some acts can be deviant in some

cases but not in others. However, it could be argued that changing the

circumstances of an act (eg. being naked in a bathroom or being naked

in the street) in fact changes the act itself - because being naked in

the bathroom is not actually the same act as being naked in the

street. It could therefore be argued that it in this circumstance it

is actually the act itself which creates the deviance and that Becker

is being too general about what constitutes the 'same' act.

Lemert, like Becker, also considers that society's reaction to the act

is as important as the act itself when it comes to deciding what is

and what is not deviant.