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¶ … labeling of individuals is a method by which behaviour considered outside the norm can be categorized. While this may have some benefit to those categorizing the behaviour there is some question over what benefit it has to those being categorized.
Becker made reference to the nature of labeling in reference to deviant behaviour with his famous quote: "deviance is not a quality of the act the person commits, but rather a consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions to an offender. The deviant is one to whom that label has successfully been applied; deviant behaviour is behaviour that people so label." While he relates it specifically to deviant behaviour it can be broadened to include anyone who is labeled, the point being that it is the labeler and not the labeled that is the focus.
With these people labeled as deviants of some type, whether it be 'gays', 'whores', 'cocaine addicts' or any other group, they are viewed generally as outcasts of society. The 'deviants' are aware of this outcast status and tend to band together,...
There is little benefit here to the labeled individual.
Foucalt takes this idea even further suggesting that society labels individuals for the purpose of restricting their freedom. Labels are created and given to people to allow others to accept treating certain groups unlike others. For example for gay men labeled simply as homosexual there is little excuse for excluding them from society in any way, but by labeling them as 'perverts', people can accept that they should be excluded from society. The end result is that they are excluded from society, something that only serves to have them labeled further. In this way we can see that labels are something that allows the norm to feel more comfortable, it gives them reason to not feel the need to accept or understand those that are different from them.
For those people being labeled this is not only a negative thing, but something that only compounds their behaviour and excludes them further from society. In this way we…
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Becker, H.S. Outsiders. New York: Free Press, 1963.
Foucault, Michel. Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. trans. Richard Howard. New York: Random House, 1965.
Goldberg, Carl. Speaking With the Devil: A Dialogue With Evil. New York: Viking, 1995.
We know this in theory, however, reading about these very innocent families and the things that they have been force to endure makes it even more important to me that the nation begin healing and removing the fears that cause this type of behavior against innocent people. The second and more far reaching point that the book makes is that nobody is safe from suspicion of this mindset is allowed
Labeling Theory: Theories of Deviance In sociology and criminology, labeling theorists were among the first to suggest that crime was not produced by inherent defects within the individual’s biology or character, but rather was a social construction. Labeling theorists suggested that crime was the result of society’s need to label certain individuals as deviant. This labeling became a self-fulfilling prophesy, to the point that the labeled individuals made their deviant label
Labeling theory The labeling theory is one of the various social behavior theories that seek to explain the cause of deviant behaviors within the society. Here, the theorists tend to describe deviant behavior as behavior that which becomes deviant only when labeled so. This approach tends to explain why the labeling theorists are not much interested in what causes the primary deviation. They tend to shelve the question of what causes
Labeling and Conflict Theory Conflict theory is largely based upon a Marxist conception of human relations. It suggests that the definition of crime is created by social elites to bolster their social position. For example, for many years within the criminal justice system, the crime of using crack cocaine was penalized significantly more than the use of powder cocaine. Not coincidentally, a Marxist theorist would note, people living in the inner
Labeling Theory of Deviance Labeling theory integrate well into radical criminology as it perceives criminal behavior to be defined by society. The powerful in the society like the judges, parents, police, to mention but a few tend to label the less powerful. Ones conduct is never classified as right or wrong but as a deviant behavior. It is not only criminal behaviors that are treated as deviant. The society's alcoholics and
Labeling Theory Criminality is an unfortunate but inevitable component of human society. As much as people would like to believe that there is a way to create a type of community that has no crime, psychologists and other experts in the field of criminology have done research and created various hypotheses which show that criminality is actually an inevitability under any circumstances where large numbers of human beings interact and then