Labelling theory Flashcards
What type of theory is it?
Sociological
What is the cause of criminality?
Labelling a deviant as a criminal
What is the 1st stage?
A person taking part in primary deviance is given a label of a criminal by someone else
What is the 2nd stage?
The deviant begins to believe their label is true, the self fulfilling prophecy
What is the 3rd stage?
The deviant now takes part in crime/ secondary deviance as they feel isolated from society
What is the 4th stage?
The label becomes their master status and everyone now sees them as a criminal
What is the 5th stage?
The criminal now turns to a criminal career
What happens to groups?
They fit a stereotype and so are all labelled together
What did the study show?
A police training manual stated that young people, untidy people and people with badly shown cars were suspicious
The labelling by police lead to this theory being developed
What is deviancy amplification?
It’s used by the labelling theory when the media and police label people
It causes a moral panic as they’re presented as folk devils
It eventually leads to more deviance one the folk devils believe their labels
What are the strengths of this theory?
It shows how trying to control deviance can cause spiralling and future deviance ( helpful for making successful policies
The study shows how official statistics are biased ( WC commit more crime) but labelling theory helps to explain how police labelling causes this
Helped to develop offender profiling ( can now make a list of suspects)
What are the weaknesses of this theory?
It’s deterministic, suggests that one we are given it’s inevitable we’ll become a criminal ( may try to fight the label)
The offender is given a victim status (blame is shifted)
It only explains labelling that happens after a deviant act ( not before)
