Labeling Theory is a theory which focus on the micro level of the society—about the individual interaction—and mainly focusing toward the idea of deviance and stigma as a social problem. Certain behaviors/situations will not be called social problem until those deviant acts or situations are labeled as such by the society at a certain point in time—what society called standard previously become a deviant now. Furthermore, the theory proposes that those labels that are attached to some individuals are mainly based on the social class, race/ethnicity, and/or gender. Even if an individual doesn’t lie into the deviant category, due to the individual having the same social class, race/ethnicity, that individual will be pushed away toward the behavior …show more content…
At one point in time during the 19th century, prostitution was considered to just be another one of the legal job available in the world (Barkan). However, the emergence of HIV epidemic in 1980s pushed those people away to fall more into the deviant part of the society—being labeled as a social problem. The fear that the society has toward those people are mainly associated with the false believe that HIV/AIDS are meant death, and HIV infections occur because of personal irresponsibility and deserved to be punished (Stigma). The labeling, however, have different impacts to different people from different social class. People who are infected and come from higher socioeconomic class are reported to have fewer impact from the labeling compare to those from lower socioeconomic class. This occur because people from lower socioeconomic class have fewer knowledge about the disease. Thus, the label that the society gave have pushed them away and prevented them from disclosing or seeking for HIV prevention/treatment and education. Therefore, it resulted in the virus to have spread even further and become untreatable. Knowledge about the infections is necessary because that way the patient will understand about secondary risk and the virus transmission