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Essay On Criminal Justice Labeling

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The intervention that I have chosen to cover is the labeling of offenders within the criminal justice system. This practice has harnessed quite the debate throughout its existence. There certainly are numerous people who endorse this practice, while others do not. In the present criminal justice system, there is a constant debate on whether labeling an offender is beneficial, or whether it causes additional deviant actions. However, labeling is still evolving, and will certainly continue to evolve for some time to allow research to flourish. To further explain, the use of labeling in the criminal justice realm is a sociological method, in which labels can be construed to stigmatize individuals, as well as offenders, for criminal or deviant behaviors and actions. This practice also seeks to focus on the individuals who participate in the labeling process to gain a better understanding of the control they implement (Thomas & Bishop, 1984). LABELING AND STIGMATIZING Further, it is challenging to nail down who exactly was the forerunner in developing labeling theory. When looking into most theories or practices, one is able to give credit to the theorist, and then the …show more content…

This has been a tremendous development, since for the longest time adults were most often studied. However, labeling theorists stress the importance of understanding that offenders can be labeled both formally and informally, and some believe that juveniles take the brunt of this the most. To be formally labeled, a juvenile would be labeled by the control agencies such as criminal courts, juvenile detention centers, etc. Informal labels would be produced by friends, parents, teachers, social networks, community members, etc. While there has been more research on formal labeling, both seem to be taken quite seriously (Adams et al.,

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