Transcript Slide 1

Labeling Theory
Symbolic Interactionism
2) Primary Deviance
3) Secondary Deviance
1)
Constructing Social Reality
 The very moment that we assign names and
labels to people and things, we breathe
independent life into them, quickly forgetting
that we created them in the first place
 We project power on our creations and allow
ourselves to be defined and ruled by them
Social Construction of Reality
 We become convinced we are what we are
named
 We become convinced that others are what
we have labeled them
 Because the truth is that when we label, we
distort reality and deceive ourselves
 We no longer see the world and the person
as they existed before we named them.
Labeling Theory
 People are largely passive agents
 We depend on what other people think
about us
 How do we know who we are? (smart,
cute, independent, etc)
Power of labels
 Society creates deviants through a labeling
process
 When we label something/someone we see
them differently (a biography of a famous
person is often biased)
 Labeled people might also see themselves
differently
 Resisting a label
The power of Labels: The Saints and
the Roughnecks
 Both groups were “constantly occupied with truancy,
drinking, wild parties, vandalism”
 Not one Saints had been arrested (no arrest , no
negative label) (”Headed for success”)
 Roughnecks had been in a constant trouble with
police (“headed for trouble)
 Why? (social class allowed Saints to be less visible,
to be more sophisticated in interactions)
The power of label and expectations
 The Pygmalion Effect (1960’s)
 Teacher’s expectations influence children’s
performance
 20 percents of the students were labeled
“blooming” academically
 A year later the same intelligence test shown
that labeled students gained much more
points
Labeling Theory
 The audience, not the actor, determines
when certain behavior becomes defined as
crime
Labeling Theory of Deviance
 All people break rules and engage in
deviance at one time or another
 They even break serious rules for which they
could be jailed (vandalism, rape, drinking and
driving, tax violations)
 Yet, only some people get the label of
deviant...
Key Premises of Labeling Theory
 Most people engage in some rule breaking
behavior that falls under the category of
primary deviance
 Primary Deviance is nonconformity that is
temporary, exploratory, trivial or easily
concealed... This kind of deviance typically
goes undetected.
Key Premises of Labeling Theory
 However, the situation changes significantly if
a person's deviant acts are discovered and
made public
 The person may then be officially labeled as
"deviant" (e.g., as nut, weirdo, pervert,
criminal, etc )
Key Premises of Labeling Theory
 This application of a label is a crucial event A
label is particularly powerful and "sticky"
when applied to a person
 Labels can become a "master status" - i.e., a
status through which all other behaviors and
characteristics become interpreted
 Ex-convicts rarely can find a good job or
friends
Secondary Deviance
 Secondary deviance is the process that occurs
when a person who has been labeled a deviant
accepts that new identity and continues the deviant
behavior (Kendall, 1998)
 Labeling someone as deviant tends to force him to
identify himself as deviant and to associate with other
deviants, which in turn reinforces his deviance and
leads him down the path of a deviant "career"
“Naming Oneself Criminal”
 Offenders differ in the way they are
accounting for or casting off stigmatizing
labels in the process of negotiating a
favorable identity
 What are those labels: drug addicts, drug
dealers, criminals, prostitutes, incompetent
parents.
Two alternatives
 To accept the label, while refusing to endorse
responsibility by providing excuses
 To provide justifications and to reject the
deviant label or to minimize the pejorative
meaning of such labels and denounce them
as meaningless lies.
First option: Accepting the label
 Offenders talk about their biographies filled
with instances of harsh physical punishment
and extreme emotional abuse, uncaring
parents unable to love their children, and
domestic violence.
 These autobiographical data combined to
create the nightmare that excused a life of
crime, prostitution, drugs.
Common “excuses”
 Offenders pointed a finger at significant
figures in their life who had corrupted their
way of thinking.
 Usually, it was one of the parents who had
sanctioned their engagement in crime and
prostitution as a legitimate money-making
opportunity
Esti: a prostitute
 “I became a prostitute because of my mom, because
of this man, because of everything at home. No one
related to me or gave a damn about me. No one
respected me. I know what was warmth, love. No one
ever caressed me. No one ever gave me a hug. She
would only yell and curse All the time she ridiculed
and humiliated me. I never knew why…”
Initiation
 Constantly called prostitute, Esti decided to
fulfill her mother's prophecy by incorporating
this label into her own identity. Challenging
her mother, she recounts how she started to
enact this role:
 “My mother never called me by my name. She all the time called
me [whore in Whenever she saw me, even in the streets, she
would yell at me Sharmouta. Sol said "I am a Sharmouta, so be
it. I am a Sharmouta, and there is nothing you can do!"
Drugs
 Drugs were a way to forget a terrifying
childhood, for example, Esti also took drugs
to repress her feelings
 In so doing, offenders implicitly claim that
they were not accountable for their criminal
actions.
 To the contrary, they were the ones who had
been wronged and victimized.
Resisting Labels
 Moshe argued that his involvement in selling
drugs did not hurt anyone:
 “I sold only grass. Those who smoke grass are not
drug addicts. I believe that in the future the law will
allow smoking grass. Light drugs are okay, even if
they are not legal. The law is not important, what is
important is that you keep control of yourself. Light
drugs do not hurt you”
Resisting the label
 Moti denied the harm they had caused to
them as a consequence of their theft and
robbery:
 “I did not want to steal from people houses or pickpocket. My
conscience would not let me. So I decided to go to the bank, it is
the money of the government, and also of the people, but they
do not have to worry about their money. If their money is stolen,
the government will guarantee it”
Which label is more stigmatizing?
 Female offenders were often ready to
endorse the labels of prostitutes and
“druggies”. Yet they vehemently resisted the
psychiatrist and prison social workers label of
insane
 “The psychiatrist was giving me shots. He was destroying me. I
wanted out! I preferred not to deal with them. If you are insane it
follows you all your life! The difference between prison and
psychiatry is that in prison you have a date when you come out.
In psychiatry you never know you come out. God forbid! They
give you electric shocks!”
Four types of citizens (Becker, 1963)
 The members of society that are rule-abiding and
free of labels are described as conforming citizens
 Those who are labeled without breaking a rule are
termed the falsely accused
 Those citizens that exhibit rule breaking behavior and
are labeled deviant are referred to as pure deviants
 Those that break rules yet avoid labeling are called
secret deviants
Dance musicians (Becker’s study)
 Participant observation study of the lives of Chicago
dance musicians to illustrate the social life of a
deviant subculture
 Although dance musicians as a group are lawabiding, their unconventional lifestyles lead them to
feel as outsiders
 Becker (1963) describes how being a dance musician
involves a change in attitudes and opinions in order
to conform to the subculture
Dance musicians (Becker’s study)
 The culture of the dance musician is rich in its
own language and gestures
 Many of the dance musicians live a
conventional family life during the day and
change into their role as musician at night
Thomas Scheff’s research
 Application of labeling theory is in the area of mental
health
 He describes how people are labeled mentally ill in
order to explain certain rule-breaking behavior that
society can't categorize
 People labeled as mentally ill adopt the behaviors of
the stereotypical mental patient as portrayed through
the mass media
Thomas Scheff’s research
 Scheff argues that those who express the
stereotypical behavior of the mentally ill are
rewarded by enterprising psychology
professionals
 Everybody expresses the popular symptoms
of mental illness at some point in their life and
labels are attached to those without power