School Drop Outs/Labeling Theory & Social Learning Theory

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

Labeling theory and social learning theory are two theories that may be compared and contrasted because the theories are somewhat similar but are still different. Although these theories have their similarities and differences, one theory may prove to be more convincing in terms of giving a better account for crime and having better theory-related policies that would best help to decrease crime rates.

In October 2000, the overall picture of high school dropouts had changed little since the late 1980s (Kaufman et al. 2001): For every 100 young adults enrolled in high school in October 1999, 5 had left school without completing a program; of 34.6 million U.S. young adults aged 16-24, 3.8 million—almost 11 percent—had not completed high school and were not enrolled. Some studies have shown that students in schools with a concentration of multiple risk factors (e.g., large schools, large classes, high poverty, inner city location) have less than one chance in two of graduating from high school; furthermore, the economic costs of dropping out have increased as time goes on (Castellano et al. 2001). Adjusting for 50

With the labeling theory sociologists focus on the interaction between both the individual involved and the audience who would evaluate the persons in question behavior. It is based on what society deems as inappropriate or deviant behavior. In Becker’s work he believes that “Labeling theory concentrates less on deviant acts themselves and instead focuses on the actor and the audience and their perceptions of each other”

Status dropout rates are reported by the NCES (The U.S. National Center for Education Statistics) as proportion of young adult’s ages 16-24 not currently enrolled in school who have not completed a high school diploma or equivalent. Dropout rates status differ by many demographic factors, including gender, race, and ethnicity, immigration status, and geographic location. In the United States dropout rates are higher in males than females. Hispanics have the higher rate, followed by African Americans, non-Hispanic, whites, and Asian Americans.

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

Throughout the years the dropout rate of African Americans has increased and decreased. Many people look at black students as if they sit there and do not learn anything at all but we do try. Some may think that the only reason the black students drop out is because their grades, but that’s not true. Some dropout because of financial pressure, health problems, mental, emotional, and social issues, and may not have family support.

In terms of high school dropout rate, Oakland Technical High School has distinct differences between different races and sexes. Hispanics have lower

Becker who was identified with labeling; he was a Chicago School student during the early 1940’s-50. He wrote two books on deviance, the “Outsiders” and “The Other Side”. He put deviant behavior into four different groups, the conformity, pure deviant, secret deviant, and the falsely accused. During this time, the self-report methodology also developed which was when the juveniles were able to report their own delinquent behavior on their own time. Which was a new way to know about different criminal/delinquent behavior. The author also discussed the two different versions of labeling theory that was the societal reaction and the secondary deviance. The societal reactions is how labels are applied, and whom labels apply to and how labels affect opportunities for those labeled. The secondary deviance is what the label means to the person its being label on and how the labels create further deviant behavior. Crime was defined as “social constructions”, which means that an individual may break a rule but it is not crime until society labels it as such. I feel that those who react to behavior attribute deviance. If society label a personal as deviant than they are left, looking for evidence to support their belief, which I do not believe, is

To break down the above scores, Hispanics had the highest dropout rate at 12.7 percent. Blacks had the second highest dropout rate at 7.5 percent. Whites had the lowest dropout rate at 12.7 percent. A big reason as to why minorities have higher dropout rates comes down to poverty quite often. ”Almost 1/2 of the difference in the dropout probability between Hispanic and white students stems from the greater prevalence of being economically disadvantaged among Hispanic students. More than 1/3 of the African-American and white student difference in the dropout probability is linked to our simple measure of student poverty” (Lofstrom,). As you can see money plays a huge factor in dropout rates. Numerous issues can result in student drop outs. The

Rural schools find it hard to recruit and retain -quality teachers and principals. The struggle that goes with the finding and hiring of employees who are okay with moving to geographic seclusion in impoverished towns are only multiplied by deficiencies in the infrastructure. For example, significant portions of rural America lack access to broadband internet. The FCC published a Broadcast Progress Report in 2016 that stated that rural areas have indignantly slower internet access, with 39% of people lacking access to broadband of 25/4 Mbps. There were only 4% of urban areas with the comparable slow speed. The result of lack of working, efficient, internet options has severely restricted rural populations from taking advantage of critical facets of modern-day life. It has also significantly limited rural students access to vital learning resources (Hudley, 2013). Transportation is another common hurdle for many students attending rural schools. The day-after-day commute, is so. lengthy, that it cuts a significant time out that would have been spent learning in the classrooms on homework. This makes teaching the material (Stroud,

Labeling theory is a theory that originated in the 1960s amidst many changes going on in the United States. The theory is unique in that it is one of the first theories that looks at the societal reaction of what the offender does and not just their action itself. When there is an act committed within a society and the majority of society does not agree with the act then it can be considered deviant. When an act

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.

Another personal related problem is jobs. Most students are working part-time in order to support themselves and their family which at times will lead to intrusion with school hours, home works, no time for studying especially to major exams and various school activities which otherwise leads to failing grade. Peer pressure is also another factor wherein these students are being led to bad influences such as drinking, drug which causes a major side effect to students (Schwartz, 1995). Schools do this in order to handle their problem. Students from broken homes are also likely to drop out of school due to the stressful situation that they have to go through and thus affect their concentration in school. Furthermore, most students who dropped out of school don't like school to begin with. These students will rebel and do anything against the school rules in order to be kicked out (Schwartz, 1995). They are likely to fail on their subjects, doesn't get along with other students, and have disciplinary problems. Oftentimes, disciplinary actions are taken before they are dropped out.

Statistically, many students of color drop out before reaching their high school graduation. According to The Associated Press, in 2015, while the national graduation rate in total “was 83.2 percent, it was only 77.8 percent for