Labeling Theory And Police Violation

A difficult challenge to the juvenile justice system and child welfare system is working with adolescents with comorbid difficulties, causing these adolescents to becoming at risk for incarceration and involvement with the juvenile and adult justice system. The juvenile justice system appears to be having a challenging time in determining how to respond and treat adolescents with mental health and substance use. "Many

Drug courts are for nonviolent drug offenders. The offender’s can have misdemeanors or felonies, but they have to agree to participate. An initial substance abuse assessment will determine the eligibility someone has for the program participation (Alarid, Montemayor, & Dannhaus, 2012). Drug court treatment lasts one year and is based on a levels system. Phase one will begin with the most hours, a full time inpatient or 12 hours of outpatient per week. Treatment includes detoxifying in different ways including acupuncture, counseling, drug testing, and retina testing. Phase two begins when the offender is ready and progressing. As the patient progresses through and hits marks of success, the number of levels usually go down to less intensive outpatient treatment. And phase four is the final phase that needs to be completed before the person can graduate. With juvenile drug courts, parents are required to be there for the hearings and weekly family treatment sessions. Parents are needed to help with sobriety in the home through being good role models and helping their child (Alarid et

Labeling theory makes no attempt to understand why an individual initially engaged in primary deviance and committed a crime before they were labeled; this then limits the scope of the theory’s explanations and suggests the theory may not provide a better account for crime. Labeling theory emphasizes the negative effects of labeling, which gives the offender a victim status. Also, the same likelihood exists for developing a criminal career regardless of deviance being primary or secondary. Furthermore, labeling theorists are only interested in understanding the aftermath of an individual getting caught committing crime and society attaching a label to the offender. This differs from the view of social learning theory, which seeks to explain the first and subsequent criminal acts. Many critics also argue that the racial, social, and economic statuses of an individual create labels, as opposed to criminal acts; this theory then fails to acknowledge that those statuses may factor into the labeling process. As a result, the above suggests that labeling theory does not provide a good account for crime and appropriately has little empirical support. Moreover, in terms of policy implications, labeling theory implies a policy of radical non-intervention, where minor offenses

Youths in the United States are using drugs more than ever and even at a younger age than the past. Reaching out to these younger addicts can be complicated. There are several ways to approach substance abuse treatment for youths. School counselors and parents are the first step to detecting the addiction. Then there is finding the right treatment for the youth. Assessment and continued treatment could include outpatient or in patient therapy. Depending on the addiction and the family support, treatment

There are separate drug courts for adults and juveniles. An adult court is designed to reduce recidivism and substance abuse among drug-involved offenders in the community. It also seeks to increase an offender’s success in recovery through continuous treatment, mandatory random drug testing, community supervision and use of other rehabilitation services. In juvenile treatment court, offenders meet frequently (often weekly) to determine how to address the substance abuse and other related problems of the youth and his or her family that brought him or her to the justice system (Treatment Court

The juvenile drug court treatment program begins with an evaluation process. The program is then implemented into a four-phase sequence that concludes with graduation. In Phase I, an individual assessment plan is established that includes a minimum of nine hours of intervention per week. This intervention consists of social activities and health related classes that cover topics such as AIDS, HIV, and STD’s. Individuals may also undergo family intervention, individual counseling, programs such as AA/NA, anger-management, self-esteem classes, and support groups.

Because of the stigma created from the label a modification of self image occurs in the individual. The individual essentially lives up to their deviant label, becoming the person described in the label. The process of deviancy amplification whereby any punishments or treatment therefore reinforce the individual perception of the criminal, thus more crimes fitting to the label are carried out. This theory can however by criticised because it is determinist, where individuals have n control over the process and once they have been labelled they will inevitably turn

Persistent substance abuse among youth is often accompanied by an array of problems, including academic difficulties, health-related consequences, poor peer relationships, mental health issues, and involvement with the juvenile justice system. There are also significant consequences for family members, the community, and society in

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.

Another theoretical distinction that labeling theory brings to light is that this theory does in fact target both the criminal and society in relation to contributing to the cycle. The societal reactions that are presented when an offender is involved in a deviant or criminal behavior is a form of social control. Therefore, labeling theory incorporates these actors into the theory so that criminal justice professionals, students, researchers, etc. can gain a better understanding for why labeling does not reduce recidivism or crime rates. The community that an offender often is released to, knows about his or her offense, depending on the severity of the

A label defines an individual as a certain kind of person. Defining an act as deviant or criminal is not a simple straight forward process. A label is not neutral, it contains an evaluation of the person to whom it is applied. It is a ‘Master Status’ in the sense that it overshadows all the other statuses possessed by the individual. If an individual is labelled as criminal, mentally ill or gay, such labels tend to override the individuals status as father, husband, worker, friend or neighbour. Whether or not the label is applied will depend on how the act is interpreted by the audience. This in turn will depend on who commits the act and where and when it was committed.

Schmalleger describes the labeling theory or social reaction theory as one that sees persistent criminal behavior as a result of not, having the chances for normal conduct that follow the negative responses of society to those that have been labeled as criminals. There is an expectation of a continuous increase in crime that is a direct effect of the label that is attached. The result of negative labels creates limited chances that the behavior would change on behalf of the criminal, due in part to societies stigma placed upon them (Schmalleger, 2012, p. 186). Those theorists responsible for the labeling theory that are discussed in our readings during this weeks assignments are listed as Frank Tannenbaum, Edwin M. Lemert, Howard Becker, John Braithwaite and others. When discussion the concept labeling, one must understand some of the most early descriptions of societal reactions to deviance, this can be found in the 1938 works of Frank Tannenbaum who explained the term, tagging. Schmalleger defined tagging as the process whereby an individual is negatively defined by the agencies of justice. Within tagging Edwin M. Limert, used the terminology of primary and secondary deviance, primary being a deviant act that was undertaken to achieve some immediate issue and or problem that may have arisen in the person life and doesn’t intend for the criminal behavior to continue. Secondary deviance

Based on Howard Becker’s symbolic or labeling theory, all acts of deviance and the person seen to be acting in a deviant manner are given labels. These labels generally come from someone in there community or group who are in hierarchy or authority figure. That means no action is deviant unless specified by the particular community or group (Bessant & Watts 2002). Becker’s labeling theory concentrates on the lower class, and anything apart from what the group expects is labeled as deviant. The term Once a criminal always a criminal is familiar, it is these type of labels that maybe detrimental in terms of a person internalizing labels as truth, and how others sees them (D. Conley 2008). The labels and or judgments given negatively, isolate the person from the group, and may hinder the person’s opportunity to reach their full potential. The strains put on a person to conform to the particular cultures norms and values, does not allow any person to differ in nature or thought. When one is pressured to perform in ways that may be foreign or

The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges have recently discussed their methodology of how to respond to compliance and noncompliance with incentives and sanctions that are designed to reinforce or modify the behavior of youth and their families. As one would assume, similar concepts, different approaches. The juvenile drug court takes a lot into perspective when using behavior modification strategies. If there is a desirable and an undesirable behavior in the same period, the JDC places weight on each of the behaviors. Recognizing the youth’s progress and accomplishments with praise, and responding to the infraction. Where the focus lies, whether on the infraction or progress, depends on where the youth is in the program, and the significance of the behavior. JDC says that our intentions don’t matter- it is the perception of the

However, it has been shown that given the label of a ‘criminal’ may motivate individuals to