Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Punishment in modern society
Punishment in modern society
Punishment in modern society
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Punishment in modern society
Punishing and blaming an individual for committing a crime has always been a part of society and its moral entrepreneurs. Whether the delinquent is able to reintegrate back to a normal functioning society or not; he will always carry the tag of being neglectful, troublesome and even in some cases stupidity with himself. In this essay we will examine how much of a strain this tag puts on individual’s life by evaluating the observations made by sociologists and psychologists throughout the years in order to test labeling theory. Moreover, we will analyse the effect that the community leaves on a former delinquent and if they would receive help and rehabilitation. All reasoning behind what is crime and deviant can be explained by one theory; As Kai Erikson mentioned in Notes of Sociology of Deviance (1962-1964), if we imagine the society as a particle then the “main organizational principle” is the nucleus of the system. This set of values is established and any act outside of the nucleus will be deemed as misconduct and deviant. This set of boundaries is recognized by most residents of the community and those who surpass it will receive punishment and face repercussion by authorities of the system. If an individual is released after being prosecuted or hospitalized for his faults and disturbance to the community; he/she will be stigmatized and eventually, this trait will become his identity and master status. A master status is what the other members of the community remember him/her by; this label is essentially what they will get from the society in order to separate the “normal” from the criminal and caution each other Labeling increases crime when deviance becomes ones self-fulfilling prophecy; once he has lost hope and feels as though there are no ways to go back and reintegrate into the society without being stigmatized is when he chooses crime as his life time career path. But labeling can help to reduce crime rates if it brings a promising rehabilitation and support in rare cases. Even though most labeled criminals are not given a second chance but there can be events where the trajectory of crime ends and heads to some prosperity and growth, such as the case in The Saint and Roughnecks where Jack and Herb received recognition and scholarships for their hard work as an athlete from colleges. As observed by Chambliss, they both accepted this reintegration to society and shortly after became honorable members of community.
A strong example of this would be the recent exploits at the Woodstock 99 music festival.
People can easily be judged based on their community, how they dress, how they talk, and who they surround themselves with, it is human nature. There becomes a problem when whole groups of people are labeled as delinquents based on how they are perceived by the rest of society, and they start to be confined to that role. This is the basis of labeling theory described in the book Criminology Goes to the Movies Theory and Popular Culture by Nicole Rafter and Michele Brown as a concept of perception of criminality as a permanent identity of people based on their background. This theory is shown on the movie American Me about the rise of the Mexican mafia, and the influence of its members. The movie presents how Mexican communities have to embrace
In the article “Labeling Theory” by Jon Gunnar Bernburg, it talks about how labeling theory provides a sociological approach to focus on the role of labeling within the development of crime and deviance. Label theory is known as the view that people give to people who participate in deviant behavior or criminal acts. Most people label people as deviant or a criminal when someone commits a deviant act that is out of the social norm or when a person spots a criminal act partake than that person will refer to him or her as a criminal. Labeling people as deviant or criminal can drastically affect that person being labeled, as they will go through new problems that stem from the reactions of self and other negative stereotypes. Labeling can cause
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.
Bernburg, J., Krohn, M. D., & Rivera, C. J. (2006). Official Labeling, Criminal Embeddedness, and Subsequent Delinquency: A Longitudinal Test of Labeling Theory. Journal Of Research In Crime & Delinquency, 43(1), 67-88. doi:10.1177/0022427805280068
The TV show, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, often addresses criminal deviance such as rape and murder. In the episode, “Scorched Earth,” an African immigrant maid becomes a rape victim of a rich, Italian prime minister named Distascio (Wolf). This episode highlights how status can affect perception of certain deviant behaviors. Additionally, it addresses contemporary America’s values toward types of deviant acts, and sanctions that go along with them.
The groups that influence us the most are: family, friends, neighborhoods, and subcultures. Family is very important in guiding social behavior. For example, “Of all prison inmates across the United States, about half have a relative who has served time in prison (Henslin, 2013).” This startling statistic correlates that if people in your family express deviant and criminal behavior, you are more likely to follow in their footsteps. Indeed, your sociological perspective may be altered due to the company that you keep and what is considered deviant to society may be a way of life for you.
In the 1980s, Social identity theory gained prominence as unlike the other theories, it draws from a multiple disciplines including psychology, sociology, and even criminology to help examine the relationship between the social group and the individuals residing in the social groups (Brown, 2000). What this theory proposes is that the social identity is a common trait that everyone in the social group processes (Stets & Burke, 2000), an idea that emotionally intelligent justice clearly reflects in its core values. This is because supporters of emotionally intelligent justice advocate that crime is not merely a violation against a person, but instead against the community as well. This falls in line with what social identity theory is proposing since if an individual violates a law, they are deviating from the common trait of being good law abiding citizens. A social trait that the group, or in this case, the community wants the individuals to exhibit and if they are not reflecting this trait, they then break the social cohesion of the group; similar to what numerous criminologists such as Merton states as they associate low level
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.
Within this essay there will be a clear understanding of the contrast and comparison between left and right realism, supported by accurate evidence that will support and differentiate the two wings of realism.
Crime is an irrelevant concept as it is tied to the formal social control mechanism of the State; deviance is a concept that is owned by sociology thus our study should be the sociology of deviance, rather than criminology
If the agents of social control define youngsters as delinquents for breaking the law, those youngsters become deviant. They have been labelled as such by those who have the power to make labels stick. However Becker argued ‘deviance is not a quality that lies in behaviour itself but in the interaction between the person who commits an act and those who respond to it’. From this point of view, deviance is produced by a process of interaction between the potential deviant and the agents of control. Becker then examined the possible effects on an individual being labelled as deviant and that a deviant label can lead to further deviance.
For the purpose of this research, the proposed theories that will be used are Agnew’s General Strain Theory and Labeling Theory. Robert Agnew is one the most recognizable theorist in the criminal justice profession. General Strain Theory is influential very influential with explaining juvenile delinquency. Agnew’s Strain theory is not the main theory of this research but when examining juvenile delinquency as a whole and the beginning it gives an explanation for that not in social science. This theory is used as the basic foundation to discuss the reasoning of why youth may began to commit crime to begin with Juvenile delinquency is an issue to continue rises in society without a proper solution. Similar to adult’s juveniles have a tendency to recidivate as well. The foundation of Agnew’s Theory comes from Sociologist Emilee Durkheim and Robert Merton, which are both vital. Durkheim defines anomie, which is the characterization of social regulation of how people my interact with one another. Merton discuss the structure of society that people live in and how there is too much emphas...
The importance of integrated theory relies on these social institutions to create a theory of the causes criminal behavior in the sense that it links to the family who is bonded to the offender in which he learn most of his behaviors from due to lack of guidance or support of his or her goals while growing up. This is where he attaches himself to peers to seek the sense of feeling important within society; this is where the child feels valued by doing crazy things with his friends who value him, but don’t have his best interest in mind. This type of social control illustrates that the individual takes into account the opinion of others to help guide his or her decision in life, which could be right or wrong therefore, it is important to enhance this individual with positive guidance with support by their
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).