Becker

Howard Becker:

• Becker examined the impact of labelling on individuals in education

• Also examined social relations to deviance in his work The Outsiders

• He claimed that acts are only deviant because society deems them to be individuals who do not consider the act to be deviant

Why are some acts viewed as deviant and not others?

• A brawl in professional sports, such as ice hockey, is not seen as deviant- but if this was replicated on the high street it would be seen as deviant

• To those involved in the brawl, the act itself is not deviant- but the reactions of others make it so

Labelling:

• Once an activity is labelled as deviant, this label becomes attached to the individual

• Based upon the initial deviant action, the individual may be labelled as ‘violent’ or ‘a thief’ or a ‘junkie’

• This then becomes their master status- one that overrides all other characteristics

Labelling in action:

1. An individual is labelled as deviant

2. Blocked opportunities

3. Further deviance- deviant career

• The individual finds a sense of identity within a deviant career or within deviant subcultures that they are denied in mainstream society due to their label - being labelled deviant can lead to a self-fulfiling prophecy

Labelling and law-making:

• Governments and legal systems apply labels to deviant activities by criminalising them

• Becker (1963) outlined how marijuana usage in the USA had been deemed to be deviant in the 1930s

• Laws were created as part of a moral crusade to stamp out usage as the use of marijuana went against traditional American values

Evaluations of Becker:

• Focus on the ‘underdogs’ of society which gave sociology a greater understanding of how criminals were stigmatised

• Did little to explain why initial acts of crime occurred

• Often sided with criminals rather than the ‘real’ victims of crime