The Labelling Theory

Introduction:
In this essay I will talk about labelling theory, a criminological method of explaining how people get labelled by other people in particular manner, as a response to the way they present themselves to the society by the way the act or how they dress. I will attempt to outline and explain the main features of labelling theory, as well as critically assess those features in an attempt to outline its strengths and weaknesses.

Key terms:
Labelling theory- it is a theory explaining how a person’s self-identity and their behaviour, can be influenced or even determined by the terms used by others around them, in an attempt to either describe or even classify them. It is often associated with the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy
“Labelling theory claims that deviance and conformity results not so much from what people do but from how others respond to those actions, it highlights social responses to crime and deviance” (Macionis and Plummer, 2005).
The labelling theory is strongly connected to Durkheim and his sociological ideas of symbolic interactionism and conflict theory. The theory also has drawn from the idea of Thomas (1928) which claims that when people define situations as real they become real in their
The problem he saw is that because of the emphasis on the deviant’s identity problems and subculture, the average person is likely to see the exact opposite, and perceive the deviant as just that, a deviant, and it could possibly make them see the individual even more so as a deviant, than they did before reading up on the labelling