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Essay on positivism
Assumptions, strengths, and weaknesses of the labeling theory of crime
Assumptions, strengths, and weaknesses of the labeling theory of crime
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Positivism created by August Comte, he believed Positivism theories are the concepts of the natural sciences to society, looking for absolute objective truths that can shape human behavior. Positivist theory outlines the crimes that are being define objectively, not subjectively. Certain behaviors are by their nature criminal standpoint. Positivism is gender more constructed (sex is biological). Positivism can explain what leads people to kill, but is very limited to how much to apply. Labeling is more like shaping us, the process by which deviant labels are applied and received. It speculates how people are labeled as deviant, delinquent, or criminal. Labeling has the effect on future behaviors. If being treated as a deviant could relate more
Bohm and Brenda L. Vogel, the Labeling theory is used to explain why people commit crimes and conceive themselves as criminals. Overall the Labeling theory consists of social groups creating rules and then applying those rules to particular people and labeling them as outsiders. This theory is split into two types of deviances: primary deviance and secondary deviance. Primary deviance is the initial criminal act, for example, a man robs a bank. A secondary deviance is committing a crime after the first criminal act and accepting the label of a criminal. Following the previous example, after the man robs the bank, he decides to do it again because he now sees himself as a criminal bank robber and wants to continue doing it and is okay with being seen that
The theoretical study of societal reaction to deviance has been carried out under different names, such as, labelling theory, interactionist perspective, and the social constructionist perspective. In the sociology of deviance, the labelling theory of deviant behaviour is often used interchangeably with the societal reaction theory of deviancy. As a matter of fact, both phrases point equally to the fact that sociological explanations of deviance function as a product of social control rather than a product of psychology or genetic inheritance. Some sociologists would explain deviance by accepting without question definitions of deviance and concerning themselves with primary aetiology. However, labelling theorists stress the point of seeing deviance from the viewpoint of the deviant individual. They claim that when a person becomes known as a deviant, and is ascribed deviant behaviour patterns, it is as much, if not more, to do with the way they have been stigmatized, then the deviant act they are said to have committed. In addition, Howard S. Becker (1963), one of the earlier interaction theorists, claimed that, "social groups create deviance by making the rules whose infraction constitute deviance, and by applying those rules to particular people and labelling them as outsiders". Furthermore, the labelling theoretical approach to deviance concentrates on the social reaction to deviance committed by individuals, as well as, the interaction processes leading up to the labelling.
The social world has provided us with multiple perspectives when it comes to various topics. A theory is a system of ideas intended to explain something based on general principles independent of the thing to be explained. All three views of crime were created by theorists as an attempt to explain the causes of human behaviors. Each theory offers a variety of explanations for the multiple perspectives the world has.
Frantz Fanon grew up in a well off family in French colonial Martinique. He was schooled in France and became a psychiatrist. After volunteering for the free French army during the Second World War, Fanon spent a number of years in the French colony of Algeria before and during the revolution (Zaidi). Because of his life and education, Fanon had a unique perspective to criticize and deconstruct colonialism and decolonization. Using a Marxist lens, he theorized that because colonies were created and maintained in violence, that a colony could only decolonize through violence. He saw violence as the best means to throw off the false consciousness of colonialism and envisioned a brotherhood or comradeship of free and equal people. It is Fanon’s similarity with Martin Luther King, Jr. that is most interesting. In the Letter from a Birmingham Jail, King makes many of the same arguments as Fanon, but proposes a better solution revolving around justice. Fanon’s obsession with violence it at the centre of his argument, however non-violent direct action, according to King, would be a better way to achieve freedom and equality because ultimately unjust action does not bring about justice.
Up until the 19th century, Classicist ideas dominated the way in which people looked at crime. However during the late 19th century a new form of “scientific criminology” emerged, called Positivism (Newburn, 2007). Positivism looked at the biological factors on why someone would commit a crime, this involved looking at the physical attributes of a person, looking at their genetic make-up and their biochemical factors.
Deviant behavior is sociologically defined as, when someone departs from the “norms”. Most of the time when someone says deviance they think against the law or acting out in a negative behavior. To sociologists it can be both positive and negative. While most crimes are deviant, they are not always. Norms can be classified into two categories, mores and folkways. Mores are informal rules that are not written; when mores are broken, they can have serious punishments and sanctions. Folkways are informal rules that are just expected to be followed, but have no real repercussions.
...ant can be attributed to some factor. In contrast, the constructionist perspective does not give a reason for and is not concerned with why a person has become a deviant. This perspective is worried about the meaning of deviance and how different acts are assigned as deviant. Even though both perspectives deal with who is or is not deviant, the positivist perspective is focused on the deviant and gives a reason for why someone commits a deviant act; whereas, the constructionist perspective focuses on the labeling of the deviant act and the response from other members of society in determining who is a deviant.
This theory believes the criminal was provoked or encourage by the victim. Then there’s the Deviant Place Theory, the best way to explain this theory is being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Then there is the Routine Activity Theory, a theory that can be calculated by different risk factors in your life, for example, if you live in a bad neighborhood and you go on vacation your risk of getting robbed is higher. Finally is the Lifestyle Theory. This theory basically states that you are as good as who you hang out with. Personally I agree with this theory. I believe that some personalities can be molded by the people they hang out with, so if they hang out with people with negative personalities eventually they will develop negative traits. For example, on Oct 26 2012 Joshua Smith made a decision to take his mother's life. As a young teen he would hang out with thugs and always tried to get ''street cred''. Eventually Joshua Smith became aggravated with his mother because she wouldn't allow him to do things his so called crew did. In the end he made the decision to take his mother's life and is now serving 25 to 27 years in
Labelling theory was suggested by Edwin Lemert (1912- 1996) in 1951 and it was then developed by Howard Becker (b.1928) in 1963. This theory is related to the Social Action perspective. The labelling procedure includes deviancy and crime, certain acts are criminal because they have been labelled in that way, these labels are created by the powerful in society, such as the government. Frank Tannenbaum (1893- 1969) stated the self-fulfilling prophecy could occur when somebody is labelled as a 'criminal'. Self-fulfilling prophecy is when a prediction of something which then becomes a fact. If you have the label of 'delinquency' or 'crime' then the individual may find it difficult to get a job therefore earning less money which could result in them returning to crime. People in society will expect 'criminals' to behave in a certain way. The people with this label may find it challenging to fit into society. Moral panics is a definition which is given when a group of people become known as a threat to societies beliefs.
Auguste Comte was born in the late eighteenth century. His family was devout Catholic’s, and enforced their religion onto him as a young child. Comte is viewed as a Positivistic- Organic theorist, and is known as the ‘Father of Sociology’. When Comte became older he began to turn his back on Catholicism. He was heavily influenced by Henri Saint- Simon, and Adam Smith. After working with Saint- Simon they had a falling out. Comte was married for a short time and referred to his marriage as a “domestic anchorage” (Coser, 17).
There are many different aspects of criminal justice policy. One in particular is the different theories of crime and how they affect the criminal justice system. The Classical School of criminology is a theory about evolving from a capital punishment type of view to more humane ways of punishing people. Positivist criminology is maintaining the control of human behavior and criminal behavior. They did this through three different categories of Biological studies, which are five methodologies of crime that were mainly focused on biological theories, Psychological theories, which contains four separate theories, and the Sociological theories, which also includes four different methods of explaining why crime exists. The last theory is about Critical criminology. Their goal was to transform society in a way that would liberate and empower subordinate groups of individuals.
It is hard for anyone to understand why people commit heinous crimes. We as human beings are all capable of committing or engaging in delinquent behavior. What stands in the way of a person that decides to engage in deviant behavior or to choose not to commit crimes at all. We may never truly know or understand the real reasons behind why certain people engage in delinquent behavior. Early philosophers and scientists studied the Criminal Justice System and the behavior of criminals using different forms of theories, which in turn, lead to the Classical School and the Positive School.
Labelling theory outlines the sociological approach towards labelling within societies and in the development of crime and deviance (Gunnar Bernburg, and D. Krohn et al., 2014, pp. 69-71). The theory purposes that, when an individual is given a negative label (that is deviant), then the individual pursues their new (deviant) label / identity and acts in a manner that is expected from him/her with his/ her new label (Asencio and Burke, 2011, pp. 163-182).
The functional theory is the defined as a framework for building theory that sees society complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. Augusta Comte and Herbert Spence looked at society as a living organism. For example, an animal or person has organs that function together so does society. Organic solidarity is social unity based on a division of labor that results in people depending on each other. Emile Durkheim developed organic solidarity to explain individuals’ workers to specific bodily organs and a group of people into a body. Different bodily organs serve different functions, without these organs the body would die, and so would the individual organs. Some of the different functions are education, religion, economics, and family. In a society, individual workers perform different kinds of labor, without which society could not function, nor could individual workers succeed.
Criminology is the scientific study of why people commit crime and why they act the way they do. The origins of criminology are usually placed in the eighteenth to the mid- nineteenth century. This was also a point of scientific discoveries and the creation of the new scholarly field of studies. One of these was criminology. Criminology was an act against the wild system of law, punishment, and justice that existed before the French revolution. (Adler, Mueller, Laufer & Grekul, 2012). There are many criminology theories that explain why an individual commit a crime. Anomie/stain theory and labelling theory are two important theories in criminology. There are two different kinds of theories, psychological theories and biological theories. Both of those theories share the assumption that such behaviour is caused by some underlying physical or mental condition that separates the criminal from the non-criminal. They seek to identify the kind of person who becomes a criminal and to find the factors that caused the person to engage in criminal behavior. (Adler et al.,).