Labeling Societal Reaction Theory

INTRODUCTION Labeling theory, also known as the societal reaction theory or perspective, is a theory within criminology which focuses on how the labels of criminality affect individuals to commit crime. The approach focuses on how criminal acts are not deviant in and of themselves but are labeled deviant and how the deviant labels affect an individual’s potential or continuous criminality. While not all labeling theorists have considered how this affects primary deviance (“characteristics, experiences, beliefs, or behaviors regarded as departures from social norms” ), the perspective also considers how assumptions and labels placed on individuals before they commit any crime may lead to crime. In other words, labeling not only explains secondary

There is a concept that there is a lack of evidence which backs up the labeling perspective which prevents such an approach to be considered a theory. Some believe that the theory is “vague” and fails to explain why labeling does not cause every labeled individual to become deviant and does not explain why what is labeled in certain societies as deviant while this is not so in other societies. There are also “different varieties of labeling theory which make assessment more difficult” (Albrecht 1978). However, there has been some research which clarify some of the missing pieces the approach has been criticized for. Some have applied labeling theory to mental illness to help validate the approach and how the label of I.Q. score impacts behavior. The theory also has touched on how being labeled with a criminal record affects and individual’s chance of being

Looking at Howard Becker’s Outsiders, one finds analysis of how assumptions based on class and race may play into the labeling process. However, it is important to first recognize that Becker also mentions labeling can have different effects, depending on the situation. An individual can commit an act which may be considered deviant if another individual commit the same or a similar offense. This is where Becker elaborates on how race and class can have a factor in what is labeled deviant and what is ignored or downplayed. On class, Becker explains that a middle class delinquent offender is much less likely to be “taken to the station; less likely to be when taken to the station to be booked; and it is extremely that he will be convicted and sentenced” (Becker 1963) than an individual who commits the same offense of an even lower class. He then elaborates on how this is similar to how deviance is labeled with race. An example he uses describes how murder is labeled differently depending on what race the perpetrator is and what race the victim is. He explains: “It is well known that a Negro believed to have attacked a white woman is more likely to be punished than a white man who commits the same offense; it is only slightly less well