Chapter 3 – Labeling Theory

Labeling Theory:

• Developed in the 1960’s by a group of sociologists.
• A version of “symbolic interactionism” which is a well-known theory about general social behavior.
• the deviant subject is not the focus, but rather the interaction between the deviant and the other “normal” people.
• Becker says that the labeling approach sees the interaction between those who commit a deviant act and the rest of society as a complementary relationship in which one needs the other to be able to exist.
  • According to labeling theorists, the meaning of an act derives from people’s response.
• Two important questions:
• Who applies the deviant label to whom?
• What consequences does that label have for the person labeled as deviant and for those who apply it?
• According to labeling theorists, those who represent the forces of law and order and conventional morality (police officers, judges, psychiatrists, social control agents) are the ones who apply the deviant label to those who violate law and morals. Examples of labeled deviants: criminals, juvenile delinquents, prostitutes, mental patients, drug addicts.
• White, rich powerful= labelers
• Black, poor, powerless= labeled aka more likely to be prosecuted or convicted as criminal despite committing similar crime to labelers.
• Possible consequence for someone labeled as deviant is that one may begin to see themselves that way. (self-fulfilling prophecy)
• Frank Tannenbaum (1938) describes two types of deviant acts:
• First act: child considers innocent/ adult defines as delinquent
• Final behavior: both child and adult define as delinquent (later called primary and secondary deviation by Edwin Lemert)
• Secondary deviance comes once the person come to agreement with society’s definition of deviant behavior therefore viewing themselves as deviant.
• Labeling theorists are interested in analyzing the transition one goes through when going from primary deviation to secondary deviation
• Ex: man released from prison for committing robbery is likely to be stigmatized as an “ex-con” and have difficulty getting a job likely leading him to commit future robbery and launch career as robber.
• Positive consequence for labeler includes building a strong moral compass which community will likely follow. Preservation and strengthening of social cohesion and social order is most important consequence.
• Criticism of theory includes that it doesn’t answer “what causes deviance in the first place?” theory isn’t meant to explain what causes primary deviance but it explains how labeling causes secondary deviance.
• Further criticism states that there is not enough evidence to prove that labeling someone as deviant causes further deviance.
• Lastly, the theory is criticized because it doesn’t account for hidden deviance since it cannot be labeled by others.

Phenomenological Theory:

• Focuses on what goes on in the mind of the people vs. what sociologists who take positivist stance on deviance
• Investigates a person’s subjectivity including their consciousness, perception, attitudes, feelings and opinions about deviance.
• Theory assumes that all people (deviants AND labelers) are very subjective in defining or interpreting deviance.
• This theory studies the phenomenon objectively; the immediate experience and consciousness of the person being studied
• Argues that positivists study their own conception which makes them subjective
• Phenomenologists state that people disagree over the meaning of deviance
• To truly understand deviance, we have to rely on people’s subjective interpretations of their own deviant experiences.
  • Ethnography is a style of research used to study deviance by analyzing how their subjects think and feel about their deviance, about themselves, and others. (ex: murders perceive themselves as morally superior to victims because they may have been taunted or humiliated by their victim prior to the murder; therefore killers feel as if they are defending their honor and dignity at the moment of the murder) (robber feels superior to victims, may think of their victims as fools or suckers who deserve to be robbed)
• Theory is criticized as only being an alternative version of human reality no better than the positivist or other versions.

Phenomenological Theory:

• Focuses on what goes on in the mind of the people vs. what sociologists who take positivist stance on deviance
• Investigates a person’s subjectivity including their consciousness, perception, attitudes, feelings and opinions about deviance.
• Theory assumes that all people (deviants AND labelers) are very subjective in defining or interpreting deviance.
• This theory studies the phenomenon objectively; the immediate experience and consciousness of the person being studied
• Argues that positivists study their own conception which makes them subjective
• Phenomenologists state that people disagree over the meaning of deviance
• To truly understand deviance, we have to rely on people’s subjective interpretations of their own deviant experiences.
  • Ethnography is a style of research used to study deviance by analyzing how their subjects think and feel about their deviance, about themselves, and others. (ex: murders perceive themselves as morally superior to victims because they may have been taunted or humiliated by their victim prior to the murder; therefore killers feel as if they are defending their honor and dignity at the moment of the murder) (robber feels superior to victims, may think of their victims as fools or suckers who deserve to be robbed)
• Theory is criticized as only being an alternative version of human reality no better than the positivist or other versions.

Feminist Theory:

• A major branch of theory within sociology that shifts its assumptions, analytic lens, and topical focus away from the male viewpoint and experience and toward that of women.
• Focuses on analyzing gender inequality; themes explored in feminist includes discrimination and sexual objectification,
• Argues that if some women have a strong desire for economic success but no access to opportunities for achieving that goal, they would be as likely as men in the same situation to commit a crime.
• Argues that if women are faced with the lack of opportunity for greater economic success, they are not as likely as men to engage in deviant activities.
• The lack of relevancy to women in anomie and other conventional theories stems from a male biased failure to take women into account.
• The theory zeroes in on women as offenders.
• States that although the rate of female crime has increased in recent years the increase is not great enough to be significant which might reflect the fact that gender equality is still far from being a social reality.
• States that compared to employment opportunities, criminal opportunities are still much less available to women than men; women are less likely to engage in criminal activities.

Post Modernist Theory:

• A late 20th-century movement characterized by broad subjectivism, or relativism; a general suspicion of reason; and an acute sensitivity to the role of ideology in asserting and maintaining political and economic power.
• It is the philosophical proposal that reality is ultimately inaccessible by human investigation, that knowledge is a social construction, that truth-claims are political power plays, and that the meaning of words is to be determined by readers not authors.
• Questions the basic values of modernism such as innovation, rationality, objectivity, and other similar values represented by modern science and technology.
• To postmodernists, the so-called objectivity in modern science is subjective because it involves the scientists imposing their own privileged professional view on the subject under their investigation.

Marxist Theory

• Describing how the powerful define and control the powerless as deviants are usually mostly ideas that are drawn from Marxism, these people are referred to as Marxist theorists.
• According to Marxist theorists, deviance can be traced as a cause of capitalism.
  • Capitalism produces property crimes, personal crimes, and other forms of deviance.
• In order to increase profit, capitalists find ways to enhance productivity at lower labor costs.
  • Including introductory automation, labor-saving devices, controlling the workers and their schedules, relocation of industries to cheaper locations; such as some non unionized places in the southern united states or in labor-rich developing countries, and importation of workers from rather poor nations.
  • This does one thing: throws out the existing labor force out of work.
  • Thus, creating the marginal surplus population. The inability to maintain decent living conditions pressures them to commit crime.
  • “Sheila Balkan, Ronald Berger, and Janet Schmidt (1980), say that marginality leads to a lack of self-esteem and a sense of powerlessness and alienation, which creates intense pressure on individuals.”
  • The cause of people to commit crimes and become deviants by making them poor, is once again capitalism.
  • Capitalism however, doesn’t only cause poverty, but coercive control as well. This is when there are threats to fire or actually fire poor workers in order to scare them to work harder for capitalist employers. (Mark Colvin and John Pauly (1983))
  • The effect of coercive control is “alienate involvement” which of course leads to engagement in criminal activities.
• Pressure to commit crime and other forms of deviance also reaches higher classes as well.
  • The creation of monopoly and oligopoly

Power Theory

• The powerful are more likely to engage in profitable deviant acts, such as corporate crime, while the powerless are more likely to commit less profitable deviant deeds, such as armed robber.
  • Power or the lack of power determines to a large extent the type of deviance people are likely to carry out.
• Power can also be an important cause of deviance
  • First, the powerful have a stronger deviant motivation. This motivation comes from relative deprivation which is from feeling unable to achieve relatively high aspirations. The powerful are more likely to raise their aspirations extremely high.
  • Second, the powerful enjoy greater deviant opportunity. It is obvious that a rich banker enjoys more legitimate opportunities than a poor worker to make money.
  • Third, the powerful are subjected to weaker social control. Generally, according to the text, the powerful have more influence in the making and enforcement of laws.
• In general, to sum everything up, because of social inequality, the powerful are likely to have a stronger deviant motivation, enjoy greater deviant opportunity, and encounter weaker social control, as compared with the powerless.

Legal and Social Reality Theory

• William Chambliss – Sociologist 1969 spoke about 2 laws:
  • Laws on the books – the ideal of law
  • Law in action – the reality of law
• Laws differ – one states how law enforcement should act -treat everyone fair and equal, the other states how law enforcement did not treat everyone equally
• Law enforcement favored the rich and powerful
• Opposed the weak and the poor
• Law was adapted by English ideals in the 11^th
• 2 separate bodies
  • Legislature – the Law makers
  • Judiciary – Law enforcers
• Social Reality Theory
• Richard Quinney – blamed the unjust law directly o the capitalism system
• Social Reality of crime
• 4 factors to consolidate its established legal order.
  • Law making by the dominant class
  • Law enforcement by criminal justice system for the dominant class
  • Criminal acts by the subordinate class
  • Popular ideology of crime
• All factors needed in order to maintain a high crime rate

Conflict Theory

•  Social conflict  has to do with the incompatible interests, needs, and desires of many diverse groups: such as:
  • Business companies versus labor unions
  • Conservative versus liberal political groups
  • Whites versus blacks
• Cultural Conflict has to do with the discrepant norms and values that derive from definitions of right and wrong. The meaning of this theory has to do with right and wrong in different cultures where in one culture something is considered right while in the other  it is the opposite.
• Both conflicts have been said to bring about criminal behavior so conflict along with its resulting criminality is a normal and integral part of modern society. These sociologists are called conflict theorists.

Evaluating Critical and Conflict Theory

• Conflict theory can be faulted for assuming that only capitalism or inequality can produce deviance but the utopian, classless society cannot.
• Critical and conflict theories give us the understanding of how capitalism and patriarchy influences the making of norms, rules or laws or the definition, production, and treatment of deviance in society
• Conflict theory is useful for explaining the motivations behind the formulation of laws
• According to conflict theory, trivial deviances do threaten powerful people’s interests by challenging the values of capitalism, such as:
  • Sobriety
  • Individual responsibility
  • Deferred gratification
  • Industriousness