Labelling theory
Definition
The perspective, associated with Becker and Lemert, that deviance is not a property of the act but a consequence of the social reaction to it. Being labelled a criminal by official agencies can produce a deviant identity and further offending.
Related terms
- Atavism
- Lombroso's concept that born criminals were evolutionary throwbacks to a more primitive human type, identifiable by physical stigmata. The concept is scientifically...
- Classical School
- The eighteenth-century intellectual tradition in criminology, associated with Beccaria and Bentham, that treats offenders as rational actors and argues for proportionate, certain,...
- Positivist School
- The nineteenth-century tradition, associated with Lombroso, Ferri, and Garofalo, that rejected free will and sought causes of crime in measurable biological, psychological,...
- Social disorganisation
- The condition of a neighbourhood in which social institutions have weakened to the point where they can no longer effectively regulate behaviour...
- Strain theory
- Merton's 1938 theory that crime results from a structural gap between culturally valued goals and the legitimate means available to achieve them....
Explained in
- History of Criminological ThoughtThe perspective, associated with Becker and Lemert, that deviance is not a property of the act but a consequence of the social reaction to it. Being labelled a...