Labeling theory

Labeling theory explains how social reactions and labels can shape identities and behavior, influencing who is treated as deviant and whether deviance continues.

Primary and secondary deviance: A distinction between initial rule-breaking and later deviance shaped by social reaction and an altered identity. This distinction captures labeling theory’s claim that reactions can help produce continued deviance.
Symbolic interactionism: A sociological perspective that studies how people create meaning through social interaction and shared symbols. Labeling theory grew from its focus on meanings negotiated in everyday encounters.
Criminalization: The process by which conduct or people are defined and treated as criminal under law and social practice. The theory examines how legal classifications create and distribute deviant status.
Differential association: A theory that explains criminal behavior through learning in relationships with people who favor lawbreaking. It locates the development of deviance in learned associations rather than primarily in social labels.
Social control: The formal and informal ways societies encourage conformity to norms and enforce rules. Labeling theory reveals how classification and sanctions operate as forms of social control.
Stigma: A discrediting social attribute that can reduce a person’s standing and shape how others treat them. A deviant label can become a stigma that constrains social identities and opportunities.
Frank Tannenbaum: An American sociologist whose work on juvenile delinquency introduced the idea of the dramatization of evil. His account anticipated the claim that defining a young person as bad can encourage further delinquency.
Juvenile delinquency: Rule-breaking by people legally classified as minors, and the social responses directed at them. School and justice-system labels can shape young people’s later identities and opportunities.
Strain theory: A family of theories linking deviance to pressure created by blocked or conflicting social goals. Strain explains rule-breaking through social pressures, while labeling focuses on reactions to it.
Collateral consequences of criminal conviction: Legal and social penalties that continue after a criminal sentence, including barriers to work and housing. A criminal label can persist through restrictions that follow a conviction.

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