Labelling Theory in Sociology

Labelling Theory

  • Focus: Examines who labels deviant individuals and who establishes rules.
  • Key Emphasis: Understand how criminal or deviant behavior is labeled and defined.
  • Foundation: Based on symbolic interactionism, which explores how individuals construct meaning through social interactions.

The Looking Glass Self

  • Concept by: Charles Horton Cooley
  • Process: Individual develops a sense of self through interaction with primary groups.
  • Steps:
    • Step 1: Imagine appearance to others.
    • Step 2: Imagine others’ judgments of appearance.
    • Step 3: Develop feelings about those judgments and respond accordingly.

Definition of the Situation

  • Proponents: William I. Thomas & Dorothy Swaine Thomas
  • Argument: To comprehend human behavior, the totality of the situation must be understood, including subjective factors and personal interpretations.
  • Key Theorem: "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences."

Two Types of Social Interaction

  • Scholar: George Herbert Mead
  • Types:
    • Non-symbolic Interaction: Direct responses to gestures or actions.
    • Symbolic Interaction: Interpretation of gestures where meaning dictates action.
  • Result: Stigmatization can lead individuals to adopt a deviant self-identity.

Stigma

  • Defined by: Erving Goffman
  • Description: Attributes that discredit individuals, reducing them from whole persons to tainted ones.
  • Consequences:
    • Undermining of normal identity due to stigma.
    • Variability: Stigma changes over time.
    • Reactions: Leads to ostracism, marginalization, devaluation, and discrimination.

Dramatization of Evil

  • Published by: Frank Tannenbaum in 1938 (Crime and the Community)
  • Concept: Focuses on community reactions to deviant behavior post-detection.
  • Influence of First Dramatization: Often more significant in creating a criminal identity than any other experience.

Primary Deviance and Secondary Deviance

  • Scholar: Edin Lemert (Social Pathology, 1951)
  • Definitions:
    • Primary Deviance: Situational or occasional deviant behavior perceived negatively, but not internalized as an identity.
    • Secondary Deviance: Behaviors stemming from societal reactions to primary deviance, leading individuals to adopt deviant roles as a coping mechanism.
  • Key Aspect: The interplay between societal reactions and individual responses.

Outsiders

  • Author: Howard Becker (Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance, 1963)
  • Concept: Social groups create deviance through rule-making and labeling individuals as outsiders.
  • Typology of Deviant Behavior:
    • Obedient Behavior: Rule Abiding and Not Labelled Deviant
    • Rule Breaking: Can be perceived as deviant or falsely accused.
    • Pure Deviant: Engages in behavior considered deviant.
    • Secret Deviant: Engages in deviance but not perceived as such.

The Labelling Process

  • Scholar: Edwin Schur
  • Key Factors in Labelling:
    • Stereotyping: Often results from racial prejudice and discrimination.
    • Retrospective Interpretation: View individuals through a new lens after being labeled as deviant.
    • Negotiation: Alleged delinquents attempt to influence their case outcomes based on the image they present.

Basic Assumptions of Labelling Theory

  • No act is intrinsically criminal.
  • Criminal definitions serve the interests of the powerful.
  • Violation of the law does not inherently create a criminal identity.
  • Philosophy: “Hi, I am: Whatever you label me.”