Primary Deviance
Definition
Rule-breaking behaviour that precedes or occurs without official labelling. Lemert argued that primary deviance is common and does not in itself alter the person's fundamental self-concept or social identity.
- Originator
- Edwin Lemert
- Nature
- Rule-breaking without official labelling
- Frequency
- Common in the general population
- Effect on identity
- Does not itself alter self-concept
- Contrast
- Secondary deviance follows labelling and reaction
Common questions
How does primary deviance turn into secondary deviance under labelling theory?+
When primary deviance is detected and officially or socially labelled, for example through arrest or public exposure, the individual's self-concept can shift toward the deviant label, and subsequent rule-breaking becomes a response to being treated as deviant rather than an isolated act.
Why does Lemert's theory treat primary deviance as normal rather than pathological?+
Lemert argued that minor rule-breaking is widespread and situational, so it does not by itself signal a deviant identity; it becomes significant to the person's self-concept only once social reaction and labelling attach a deviant status to it.
Related terms
- Deviant Career
- Becker's concept describing how an individual moves sequentially through stages of deviance, from initial rule-breaking through labelling and eventually into immersion in...
- Moral Entrepreneur
- Becker's term for an individual or group that campaigns to create or enforce moral rules, defining what will count as deviant and...
- Secondary Deviance
- Deviant behaviour that arises as an adaptation to the social reaction to primary deviance. Once labelled, a person restructures their identity and...
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
- A situation in which a definition, though originally inaccurate or arbitrary, provokes behaviour that makes it accurate. In labelling theory, treating someone...
- Stigma
- Goffman's term for a deeply discrediting attribute that reduces the bearer to a spoiled identity in others' eyes. A criminal conviction functions...