SOC 1500 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Labeling Theory, Structural Marxism, Bourgeoisie
27 Mar 2014
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Context: teaching young children, self-fulfilling prophecy, when an individual is labelled they tend to fit this label through a self-fulfilling prophecy, not the act but the contextual meaning attached to that behavior. Three questions: who gets labeled as deviant, how does this process occur, what are the consequences of being labelled. There are two types of the labelling theory: Informal: the label given by people whom you have a close social relationship with such as your friends, family, peers, coworkers (there are less severe consequences with these labels) Formal: labels as given by official agents of social control such as police, doctors, teachers, courts (these labels are more severe and more important) Those who are defined as deviant or criminal are often of lower class, less authority or less power. People of power have set up severe consequences such as institutionalization. An offender is seen as ultimately and irrevocably bad.
