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labeling theory, in criminology, a theory stemming from a sociological perspective known as “symbolic interactionism,” a school of thought based on the ideas of George Herbert Mead, John Dewey, W.I. Thomas, Charles Horton Cooley, and Herbert Blumer, among others.
Labeling theory is an approach in the sociology of deviance that focuses on the ways in which the agents of social control attach stigmatizing stereotypes to particular groups, and the ways in which the stigmatized change their behavior once labeled.
Labeling theory is closely related to social-construction and symbolic-interaction analysis. [3] Labeling theory was developed by sociologists during the 1960s. Howard Saul Becker's book Outsiders was extremely influential in the development of this theory and its rise to popularity.
The idea of labeling theory flourished in American sociology during the 1960s, thanks in large part to sociologist Howard Becker. However, its core ideas can be traced back to the work of founding French sociologist Emile Durkheim.
Labeling theory emerged as the dominant perspective in the study of deviance in the 1960s, though its origins can be traced to Durkheim. Labeling theory, influenced by symbolic interactionism, dramatically transformed the field by redefining what constituted deviance and what was significant to understand about deviance.
Sociologist Howard Becker is credited with the most influential formulation of labeling theory, which appears in his book Outsiders (1973). According to Becker, deviance is not an intrinsic feature of behavior.
Labeling theory had its origins in Suicide, a book by French sociologist Émile Durkheim. He argued that crime is not so much a violation of a penal code as it is an act that outrages society. He was the first to suggest that deviant labeling satisfies that function and satisfies society’s need to control the behavior.
In the 1960s, Becker, along with a small group of like-minded researchers, produced a small body of work that exerted an enormous influence on the sociological approach to deviance; it came to be looked upon as a more or less unified perspective that is widely referred to as labeling theory.
Howard Becker (1963): his key statement about labelling is: “Deviancy is not a quality of the act a person commits, but rather a consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions to an ‘offender’. Deviant behaviour is behaviour that people so label.” What did Becker mean?
The works of early pioneers such as Tannenbaum (1938), Lemert (1951, 1967), Becker (1963), Goffman (1961, 1963), and Scheff (1966) brought labeling theory front and center to a position of...