Juvenile delinquency is commission of a crime by young people. Teenager crime differs from other forms of crimes in different ways; 1. Other crimes are committed by adults 2. An adult who commits a crime may be charged and convicted of a crime in a court of law under the laws of that country. However, juvenile courts handle teenager crimes. Labeling is an approach that posits that offenders be identified as deviants in society. When juveniles commit offences, they suffer stigma due to labeling. This approach has been has been criticized on its ability to identify which behavior or individual can be identified as deviant. This disadvantage of labeling has led to identification of some members while others remain secret deviants. Labeling May results to stigma that …show more content…
The (theorists) developed several effects that counter the intended of objective of labeling. Lemert (1951) portend that societal response to deviance behavior may have far reaching negative effects on the individual offender. First, primary deviance that follows labeling creates stigmization that eventually leads to secondary deviance. According to Lemert (1951) stigmization restricts opportunities available for teenager labels. Bergler and Meerloo (1963) claims that there is no evidence of subsequent criminal acts or deviance behavior that results from labeling. However this is the case when only labeling, police contact, an arrest or conviction is considered. They argue that the severity, length and nature of labeling is what cause further development of deviant behavior. Wilson (1982) posits that delinquency labeling effects are evident in the schools. According to him (Wilson) delinquency labeling lowers the academic potential of the victims. In his study, Wilson argues that labels perform poorly in school and this fact has invoked other studies on the