Émile Durkheim´s The Labeling Theory

Once a person is labelled as a deviant or anything else, it is hard to remove that label. The Labeling Theory or also known as societal reaction theory, basically says that no behavior is deeply rooted on its own. It is society’s reaction to the behavior that makes the act deviant or not. Labeling is to give someone or something to a category and is usually given mistakenly. The people who usually doing the labeling have high status, numbers, power and authority. People with low status, power and authority are the ones that are being labeled. The Labelling Theory claims that deviance and conformity result from not a persons’ actions but how people respond to the actions. This theory is not only a criminological theory but a social theory
Durkheim had argued that deviance clarifies social norms and increases conformity. Durkheim believed that deviance had three main functions. The first function spells out social norms and boosts conformity. The second function states that deviance reinforces community bonds among the people in society that respond to the deviant. The last function of deviance is that it can “help lead to a positive social change” (STUPID REMOVED AUTHOR). Deviance is behavior that violates informal/formal social norms. There is nothing fundamentally deviant or criminal in any human act in any situations and at all times. In this view something is deviant or criminal only if people have been successful in labelling it criminal or deviant. Deviance can vary dramatically across cultures. Cultural norms are relative, which make deviant behavior relative as well. Marijuana is considered deviant by a large number of societies, but in the country of Jamaica, the Rastafarian faith accepts its consumption and actually promotes it. People of the Rastafarian faith believe that the "higher” one is, the closer they are to God (Hall
It is minor deviant acts that everyone does once or twice (playing hooky or speeding) but they have little reaction from others and therefore has little effect on a person’s self-concept. Primary deviance does not end in a person adopting a deviant identity, so again it does not change their self-concept to embrace this deviant identity.
Also in Introduction to Sociology (2012), secondary deviance is when a person repeatedly violates a social norm, which leads others to make assumptions about the person and assigns a label to him/her. Its deviant behavior that results from a stigmatized sense of self that aligns with society's concept of a deviant. A person may start to take the part of a deviant as an act of revolt against society because that person has been labelled as such. In other words, it is deviant behavior that results from being labeled as a deviant by