Week Ten - Labelling

Question 1

What does the Labelling Theory focus on?

Answer 1

The Labelling Theory focuses attention on the power, the choices and the processes by which some individuals are labelled deviant, and others are not.

Question 2

Who is the main individual of this Theory?

Answer 2

Howard Becker

Question 3

Amplification Theory…

Answer 3

Stigma is attached to certain groups – they become the ‘other’ or ‘Outsiders’.

Question 4

Becker, 1963

Answer 4

“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” (Becker, 1963: 9).

Question 5

Chambliss, 1969

Answer 5

“… the single most important characteristic of contemporary Anglo-American society influential in shaping the legal order has been the emerging domination of the middle classes… the attempt by the middle class to impose their own standards and their own view of proper behaviour on people whose values differ” (Chambliss, 1969)

Question 6

This is exemplified by the fact that…

Answer 6

This is exemplified by the fact that the privileged classes, in the person of judges, decide upon rules and laws on the basis of their own personal values.