Labelling Theory

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Introduction.
One criminological theory which seems to have a great impact on the criminological way of thinking is the labelling theory. This is when a member or group within society has a positive or mainly negative label forced upon them. This label has many impacts upon the individual or group that it was assigned to.

Criminal offenders
The labelling theory has a different idea on how to class a person as a criminal or deviant. Many classical criminological theories such as, the born criminal, claim a person is deviant because they inherently seek to commit criminal acts. This means a person does not subscribe to accepted norms. The labelling theory claims individuals are not criminal because they were born that way, it is because they …show more content…
It can be argued that the main victims within this theory are the individuals that have been labelled. One could argue this because, the label that is given and enforced, is hard to remove. Therefore, the individual will continue to be labelled and may fall victim of the self-fulfilling prophecy. Once the self-fulfilling prophecy has taken affect this is when the labelled individual falls victim of the theory. However, to claim that once you are labelled there is no return does not explain how some criminals who have been through the justice system and served time in prison change their behaviour. It can be seen that the label they once had has changed. This new label can either be positive or negative. If they are labelled as an ex-prisoner, some may see that person as a reformed individual. However, there are still people who would see them as a criminal and the individual may fall back into criminal …show more content…
This kind of social control is used by members of the family, friends and other people who are in no connection with the law. A label that has been given to an individual can have a lasting effect. If a person is given a label by other members of society, this could mean that they will begin to feel excluded. With the repeated labelling individuals are more likely to commit further crimes. As with the example above, a person who is labelled a drug user once may except their mistakes and change their behaviour. However, if more than one person starts to use this label, this could lead to social exclusion, which means they will lose all social connections. This could lead the individual to commit more crimes to fuel the
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