Labelling And Deviance

Why might Contemporary British Youth be seen as a ‘Problem Generation’? Discuss with reference to a) Labelling and Deviance, and b) Transitions to Adulthood.

In this essay, I will be discussing the emergence of youth being seen as a problem generation by exploring the notion of labelling and deviance attached to youths and I will be examining youth transitions to adulthood. Youth appears to be an anthropological constant, where ‘in all human societies there is a transitional phase between childhood and adulthood’. (Mitterauer, 1992:1) In outgoing society the definitions of youth have changed dramatically, youth are now associated as a problem generation, the word problem generation has more than one definition and can be explained in many

A significant theory discussing the importance of labels would be Howard Becker’s (1963) labelling theory who uses an Interactionist approach when explaining labelling. "Labelling is the process by which others usually those in powerful positions come to impose an identity upon us". (O’Byrne, 2011) The labelling theory could be used to illustrate the problematic stigma attached to youths, as it has subsequently become a dominant paradigm in the explanation of deviancy. (Abercrombie et el, 2006). Becker quoted ‘social groups create deviance by making rules whose infraction constitutes deviance and by applying those rules to particular and labelling them as deviant’ (Becker, 1963:9), what Becker means by this is that there is no such thing as a deviant act and that an act only becomes deviant when others see it as deviant. Howard Becker’s work can be closely linked to the work of Edwin Lemert (1951) who distinguished the terms primary and secondary deviance, he defines primary deviance as ‘ deviant acts that have not been publicly labelled’ whereas he defines secondary deviance as ‘ deviance that has been labelled and is a result from societal reaction’. We can link this to contemporary British youth as being labelled as deviant can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy in which young people live up to the label, resulting in secondary deviance. Becker’s labelling theory therefore shows us how authority

Transition is defined as ‘a shift from one status or role to another...’ (Green, 2015:102) Coles (1995) argue that traditionally there has been three important transitions characterising the journey to adulthood, these are ‘from full time education to full time work’, ‘from family of origin to family of destination’; and ‘from residing in the family home to independent living’. (Green, 2015:117) Due to the recent recession, the role of industrialization in cheaper developing countries and the expansion of higher education has impacted on the formation of these transitions. During the 1970s, the UK was a labour-intensive, industrialized society with full employment however, since then the quantity, quality and types of jobs available for young people have declined. In 2012, a serious televised scandal was exposed where money-making global companies such as Tesco supermarkets were found to be in agreement with the government in ‘pressurizing young people obtaining jobseekers allowance to work thirty hours a week for up to two months doing menial work with no additional benefits or employment guarantees’. (Malik et al, 2012, cited in Green, 2015:117) Additionally, several studies by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation have explored the various patterns of transitions from school to work and some have even found that new divisions are appearing among young people entering