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Becker's Labeling Theory

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Crime and Deviance is an important part of our daily lives. Deviances are described as the recognized violation of cultural norms. Crime is known as the violation of a society formally enacted laws. Both crimes are subjective to a society and things that are considered crime or deviance in one society may not be considered crime or deviance in a different culture. Sociologist have theorized why people will do deviant or criminal acts, three theories that explain why people chose deviance are Becker's labeling theory. Sutherland's differential association theory, and Hirsch's control theory.

Labeling theory was created by Becker. The theory states that deviance and conformity result not from what people do but how others respond to it. What this means is that people become deviant from how society respond to what they do and not what they do. Deviance being in two classes Primary deviance and secondary deviance. Primary deviance being deviance going unnoticed, such as drinking at a party or ditching class. secondary deviance is deviance that goes noticed. This leads to changes in behavior. An example being somebody says "You're an alcoholic" this statement lowers your self-esteem and self-image making you think you are a whore so you act like an alcoholic. This being the bases of the theory. …show more content…

This theory states that people learn deviance from the people they associate with or look up to, and they will conform to fit in with them. An example being if someone associates with a group of racist or addicts they will conform to their behaviors or norms and become a racist or a drug addict to fit in with the group. The opposite can happen if somebody associates with an honor student who volunteers and is a nice person they will adopt their norms and they themselves will conform and become an honor student who volunteers will be nicer to

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The labeling theory proposes deviance is socially constructed through reaction instead of action. In other words, according to this theory, no behavior is naturally deviant on its own. Instead, it's the reaction to the behavior that makes it deviant or not (Long-Crowell, 2003). Labeling theory helps to explain why a behavior is considered negatively deviant to some people, groups, and cultures but positively deviant to others. The sheriff deputies working for Manitowoc County at a very young age considered the entire Avery family as a bunch of no good trouble makers (Long-Crowell, 2003).

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Specific theories that indicate the linkage of behavior to the community are Merton’s Strain Theory, Agnew’s Strain Theory, Social Disorganization Theory, Elijah

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Deviance is categorized as a violation of cultural norms. In order for one to express deviance, they must act out against societal norms which are known as expectations and rules that "lead the way" for how an individual should act. Therefore, its much easier to depict from there that mostly one's society is what ultimately differentiates what the rules and expectations are as well as what it needed to break those rules that they have somewhat instilled and ingrained into our daily lives. To add, due to society and different eras of socialization deviant behavior evolves over time.

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Labeling Theory In general, labeling theorist focus on how and why certain acts are defined as criminal. Under labeling theory, nit everyone who commits an offense is punished for it. Becker (1963) stated that social groups create deviance by creating the rules whose infraction constitutes deviance and by applying those rules to particular people and labeling as outsiders. As a result, once a certain label is placed on an individual, he or she eventually accept the label as personal identity.

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The strain theory was one of the earliest theories that explained social deviance which was developed by Robert Merton .Merton was proposing a typology of deviance based upon two criteria of which is a person's motivations or their adherence to cultural goals and a person's belief in how to attain his goals. According to Merton, there is a time when cultural defined goals become so oppressive that an individual may feel forced to use alternative methods to reach these goals. According to Merton, there are five types of deviance based upon these criteria which are conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion. When it comes to conformity it involves the acceptance of the cultural goals and means of attaining those goals. Innovation involves the acceptance of the goals of a culture but the rejection of the legitimate means of attaining those goals.

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The differential association theory has become the most talked about learning theory of deviance. The theory focuses on how individuals can learn to become criminals. The theory does not have concern for why individuals become criminals. Criminology is the knowledge regarding crime and delinquency as a social issue.

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Social learning theory and social bonding theory are two theories that may be compared and contrasted because they both overlap and differ. Although these theories have their similarities and differences, one theory may prove to be more convincing in terms of applying the theory to the understanding of crime and delinquency. Social learning theory refers to Akers’ theory of crime and deviance. Akers attempted to specify the mechanism and processes through which criminal learning takes place by explaining crime and deviance; he did this in such a way that the likelihood of conforming or deviant behavior based on the influence of an individual’s history of learning was accounted for. This theory was based off Sutherland’s differential association theory, which had nine propositions outlining the process by which individuals acquire attitudes favorable to criminal or delinquent behavior with the basic idea that people tend to associate with others in which they come into contact.

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Social Learning Theory and Differential Association Theory Edwin Sutherland and Ronald Aker were important sociologist because of their significant theories that relate to crime and deviance. Sutherland’s differential association theory provided a solid sociological approach to understanding crime, deviance, and challenged many mainstream criminologists who focused exclusively on street crimes. The differential association theory refers to the social interactions with deviant as opposed to conventional others such as, values, attitudes, and techniques of criminal behavior. In 1966 Ronald Aker reformed Sutherland’s idea of differential association to his own theory of social learning, which attempted to introduce the psychological concepts of operant conditioning to the theory.

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It means that deviance which is an action or behavior that violates social norms, including a formally enacted rule remains incomplete without a discussion of crime which is an act that violates the criminal law/prevailing norms. Society sees most crimes such as murder (taking a life and sinning against God and man), robbery (interfering with other people space and property), rape (forcing a person without its own will but it encouraged by a “hidden culture of rape” that holds women secretly asks for it) as deviant but some crimes like violation of traffic law are not deviant. However, not all deviance are crimes such as homosexuality which is a big deal in regards to our social norms today, which is also considered to be a deviant act although

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This articles explains how some people can be labeled as deviant and it also mentions that deviance is rather generated by society to label certain people as deviant or outsiders. It also talks about how deviant is a consequence not an action. Even people that have not been criminal could be labeled as deviant. In fact, the author provided different examples in regards to instances where a person is labeled deviant, or not.

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The Mafia and organized crime would be an example of deviance in society. Differential Association Theory and Social Structure sheds light on how individuals learn to become criminals, the conditions in social structures that lead to deviant behavior, and how both are similar. Members of the Mafia are influenced by their own set of norms and beliefs in their culture. Both, Differential Association Theory and Social Structure, are essential for a complete understanding of deviant behavior and why organized crime exists.

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The norms of one society vary greatly from another. This means that social deviance has a very broad list of definitions that make one individual a deviate, that is susceptible

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Although this may be true, when considering ones perspective, an act that breaks social norms may seem very normal to the group who is committing the deviant act such as, people of the gothic culture. Therefore, it can be assumed that deviance is not only a historical term, but also a term that relies immensely on perspective. Perspective can be described as, how people use their own experiences to judge a situation. For example, currently in the United States, the use of Marijuana has become less deviant than it has been in the past years. Therefore, when comparing an individual from the “War on Drugs” era, to someone who grew up in the medical marijuana era, there will be different views on marijuana.

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Deviance is any behavior that violates social norms and is usually of sufficient severity to warrant disapproval from the majority of society. Deviance can be criminal or noncriminal. Media helps us frame the way we think, act, and choose. Children have growing brains

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This essay will discuss how the ideas of deviance have changed throughout time. The views on deviance and therefore crime have changed a lot during the history of mankind. We can consider various reasons for this change for example the disappearance of the importance of religion, wars, changes in political or social structures. With the changes on the views on crime the system of law changed as well. Law books needed to be introduced, so that officials could agree on a universal concept of who should be punished and how this process should be carried out.

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