Labelling Theories Of Crime

DESCRIPTION OF HYPOTHESIS/TOPIC
My hypothesis was created as we looked at labelling theory in school and closely linked it to crime. This made me think that labelling is unfair as it can affect a person’s future and social lifestyle due to them being labelled as deviant or a criminal. This topic is also a major concern for many Sociologists as they have investigated and carried out a varied amount of studies to prove the theory of labelling linked with crime.
Crime is specifically associated with behaviour that breaks the formal written laws made by the Government within a particular society. An example is that seatbelts must be worn whilst driving a car however if a person breaks this law, it will be considered a crime. Deviant behaviour is
Firstly, common sense explanations of social behaviour are simply opinions, beliefs and assumptions made within society, thus they are naturalistic and individualistic views. They often have no research to justify their explanation, hence they lack objectivity. Therefore, a common-sense view on crime and deviance is that the criminal is simply “bad”, “greedy” and/or “selfish”. Some may also believe they commit these acts due to the lack of the money they have. They blame the criminal’s financial crisis on the criminal themselves and don’t take in any bigger scale factors that could be affecting their social life and preventing them from having a good job. On the other hand, a sociological explanation of social behaviour is objective as they use research, theories and conduct surveys/tests to produce their explanation. Therefore, they do not make any assumptions on opinion/beliefs. They also look at wider social forces such as the structure of society, role of institutions and systems, social interactions and the historical development of society. A sociological explanation behind criminal/deviant behaviour could be that the individual has been socialised poorly and has ended up having to steal and be deviant to gain the attention they crave as a child which could then develop into a more serious crime in the
He used many research methods to collect the information needed. In this study, Jock Young investigated the police’s reaction to a group of Marijuana smokers in Nottinghill, London. Young examined that the police soon labelled them as ‘dirty, scruffy, idle, drug addicts’ which he suggested could ‘fundamentally alter and transform the social world of the marijuana smoker’. Thus, the group created a self-fulfilling prophecy as the hippies began to behave in a manner that was expected of their behaviour. Therefore, the police began treating them differently and began to distance them from mainstream society and culture. The hippies began to limit themselves into smaller groups and excluded ‘straights’ to protect the overall privacy of the group. Thus, created a deviant self-concept. A deviant self-concept is a general term used to refer to how someone or a group thinks about, evaluates and perceives themselves due to construction of their beliefs which other people hold – which in this case would be the beliefs the people have over hippies. This study shows that by the police labelling these marijuana smokers as, “dirty, scruffy, idle, drug addicts” this therefore resulted in this group carrying out the expected behaviour. Therefore, Jock Young shows throughout his study that labelling contributes greatly to the causes of crime