How Did Steven Vail Fall Under The Labeling Theory Of Deviance

Steven Avery was born July 9, 1962. Avery is an American convict from Wisconsin. When Avery was 18-years-old, he pleaded guilty to burglary and received a 10 month prison sentence. Two years later, Avery and another man were convicted of animal cruelty after burning Avery’s cat alive (Fuller, 2016). They covered the cat in engine oil and then tossed it into the fire. In 1985, Avery was charged with a trio of crimes: assaulting his cousin, a Manitowoc County sheriff’s deputy; possessing a firearm as a felon; and for the rape of Penny Beernsten (Fuller, 2016). He served six years for the assault and illegal possession charges, and 18 years for the assault, sexual assault and attempted rape (Fuller, 2016).

The Wisconsin Innocence Project took on Avery’s case and got him exonerated of the rape charge, leading to his release from prison. Avery filed a $36 million federal lawsuit. On Oct. 31, 2005, Teresa Halbach was scheduled to meet Avery to photograph a minivan for Auto Trader Magazine (Fuller, 2016). She went missing and after her burnt remains were found

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). “The closer you get to Mishicot and the area where the Avery’s actually live, the more likely people are to say, ‘Well, they are guilty,’” He was labeled as bad person when he assaulted a sheriff deputy, possessing a firearm as a felon, and animal cruelty (Long-Crowell,