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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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