Howard Becker's Labeling Theory

The labeling theory, an example of constructivist perspective is the theory put forth to define how deviance is experienced and why people continue to be deviant. The labeling theory was developed by a group of sociologists in the 1960’s. It is a version of symbolic interactionism defining deviance as a collective action involving the acts of more than one person, and the

Labeling theory is the view that society creates deviance through a system of social control organizations that label certain people as a delinquent or even juvenile delinquent. An example of someone being highly labeled would be John Bender. John was the criminal student who smoked, skipped school, and broke all the rules. John experienced labeling theory, ultimately by his dad as being a lazy free loader and by the principal as being the worst kid at the school. To compare, he also went through the strain theory stage, the stage when society puts peer pressure on an individual caused by the failure to achieves one’s social goals. John was labeled by his peers, father, and even principle as someone who did not care about the rules in school or succeeding in life. However, he had his own self-label where he accepted the fact that he was a trouble maker. Furthermore, an example in the movie is when he felt he was treated unfairly by the principle so, to get revenge he would leave the classroom and wandering the halls to make the teacher come find him and the students. With John demonstrating being the bad influence on his classmates, he puts peer pressure on all the rest of the students to display deviant behavior.

Labeling theory holds that individuals come to identify and act as per their labels. The major tenet of this theory is that the behavior and self-identity of individuals is affected by the way they are described by other people (Vold, Bernard, Snipes, & Gerould, 2016). According to this theory, the act of deviance is not implicit in a particular act, but is hedged on the inclination of the majority to ascribe labels to minorities in society who deviate from standard behavior. Labeling leads to dramatization of a particular act – which propagates the behavioral clash between the individual and the community. Through ascribing labels, the individuals acquire a negative self-image. The individuals accept themselves as labeled by the

The first sociological concept or principle that is seen in The Breakfast Club is the idea of the labeling theory. The labeling theory is an approach to the study of deviance that suggests that people become “deviant” because certain labels are attached to their behavior by political authorities and others. For example Claire

Some sociologists believe that the cause of crime and deviance is labelling which is when a label is attached to a person or group of people due to their appearance, sex, ethnicity etc. Labelling theory argues that once this label has been attached it can create a self fulfilling prophecy, which is when the person begins to act according to the label and hence it comes true simply through being made. Labelling is similar to stereotyping but this is when a person assigns certain characteristics to a labelled group. An example to support this would be 9/11. Since this disaster people label Muslims as being terrorists

The Labeling Theory is the view that labels people are given affect their own and others’ perception of them, thus channeling their behavior either into deviance or into conformity. Labels can be positive and/or negative, but I’ll focus on the negative aspects of labeling in high school. Everybody has a label in high school whether it is the “slut”, “pothead”, “freak” or the “jock”; it is one of the most apparent time periods in which individuals get labeled. Students have the mentality that whatever label is placed on them is going to be stuck with them forever, which then leads into a self-fulfilling prophecy. This, I feel, is a fear of being a “loser” that has been instilled throughout years by the principals, teachers, etc. An example

Once a person is labelled as a deviant, it is hard to remove that label. The Labeling Theory basically says that no behavior is deeply rooted on its own. It is society’s reaction to the behavior that makes the act deviant or not. Labeling is to give someone or something to a category and is usually given mistakenly. The people who usually doing the labeling have statues, numbers, power and authority. People with low status, power and authority are the ones that are being labeled.

‘Labelling theory is the view of deviance according to which being labelled as a “deviant” leads a person to engage in deviant behaviour.’ This states that if a person were to labelled as a thief, that person would be treated different (looked down upon). This could leave this person to do what they are labelled as and commit theft. This is backed up with study.com’s definition of labelling theory, which states ‘people become criminals when labelled as such and when they accept the label as personal identity’. This moves into strain theory as the strain theory cultural theory as in Merton’s strain theory argues that ‘the American cultural

The labeling theory is based off of interactions between individuals and society. It suggests that the negative labels given to individuals by society can cause the individual to become that label.

Most people consider pedophiles to be anyone who has committed a sex offense against a child and that all pedophiles will commit this offense. In both cases that is, at best, a half truth. The DSM-5, which is a tool that outlines the diagnostic criteria for a given disorder, defines pedophilic disorder as, “a paraphilia involving intense and recurrent sexual urges towards and fantasies about prepubescent children that have either been acted upon or which cause the person with the attraction distress or interpersonal difficulty.” With the latter half of this definition, we begin to open up to the idea that there are those who have sexual interests in children who have had no form of inappropriate contact with a child, but rather just have their daily life affected by the feelings that they are having toward

“Labeling theory is based on the idea that behaviors are deviant only when society labels them as deviant” (Crossman). The effect of being labeled as deviant can have two results, where some people change their ways of behavior while others get more involved into deviant acts. For example, when a coach is dealing with an athlete who is labeled as a “failure” by other athletes, the coach will not be surprised when the athlete does badly on a match. Indeed, the coach will be surprised if the athlete does well. Once a person is labeled as deviant, then the label stays with their identity for the rest of their

The labeling theory which was thought of back in 1938 from Frank Tannenbaum’s “Crime and the community” which talked of the criminal process by identifying and labeling a person by their actions and how they behave in the community. There are a lot of major concepts that the labeling theory deal with such as the origin

The effect of the idea of minorities are criminals can cause the minority to take on a criminal identity. Police usually stop criminals or someone that has broken the law. When an innocent man or women gets stop by law enforcements, for doing nothing wrong, the police are then labeling the individual as a criminal. Therefore, it can affect the individual’s way of evolving a criminal identity. In sociology, there is a theory called the labeling theory. Because an individual is labeled by society to be a certain character that individual will take on the characteristics of the label that comes with how society views the individual. In the textbook by Dalton Conley, “You may ask Yourself”, illustrates how the labeling theory works. For example,

Have you ever experienced a time when your parents called you a genius and you truly felt like one? How about when a professor pointed fingers at you because he thought you were cheating on a test? Most certainly you felt some type of shame or guilt; or probably got so tired of your colleagues negative thoughts that you decided to embrace it and just go along with it. These are just a few examples of the impact that people’s opinions or thoughts can have on your reputation. Think for a second about the Stanford Prison Experiment, which demonstrates the influential role that a situation can play in human behavior. The individuals chosen to perform as guards were placed in a position of power and thus they began

A pedophile is an individual with intense, reoccurring sexual fantasies, and urges involving young children. To act on these urges, to make them reality, is truly sick in nature. A pedophile is similar to a disease. He works quietly, and his attendance becomes known only by the destruction he leaves. Pedophiles violate the most vulnerable members of our society. They steal their innocence, and leave scars that will last a lifetime.