Labelling theory is the most important approaches to understanding deviant and criminal behaviour. The labelling theory is rooted in the idea of social construction and how people view one another and is one of the most focused field in sociology thanks to Howard Becker. The labelling theory begins with the assumptions that no act is initially criminal. The definition of criminality is established by the those who are in power which is done through the formation of law. To be able to understand the work of H. Becker one must understand that deviance is not a set of characteristic or a group of people, but it is the process of interaction of the deviant and the non-deviant and how the law may interpret this interaction. People often tend to get labelled by various words that others may not, such as drug addict, the weird kid in the class etc. These labels can have detrimental effects in exposed in a childhood when the personality is not fully developed yet. Such labels also tend to become memories and start creating the child’s personality by shaping it how people view them as. Psychologically we tend to conform to these labels and try to act upon them this is also common with criminals as most criminals. In 1992 Jamie Bulger a 2-year-old was abducted by two 10-year olds John Thompson and Robert Venables in a shopping centre in Liverpool. The baby boy was murdered and body …show more content…
Such process may include differences of social class, opportunities, and economical structure. The second, critique is that the labelling theory still cannot fully say that the relabelling and reforming process works effectively, taken the case from above one boy was successful in relabelling himself and the other was not. The labelling theory should hence, focus on other underline issues and then start the relabelling process