Labeling Theory

CRIMINOLOGICAL THEORIES -labeling theory, ch. 8 Thinking about the labeling theory in terms of criminology, as a dependent or independent variable, one is met with many implications of the complex theory. It is difficult to trace stigmatizing labels because to do so one must think of a society that is oppositional by nature as opposed to a core group of its inhabitants. And it is also difficult to determine at times, even through the ostensibly objective …

…compliance to an other’s conception of one’s own identity is a prerequisite for patterned behavior. It is interesting to think about the relationship between labeling theory and racial profiling, in which law enforcement officers may be helping people “become what the sanctioning process meant to prevent, even if he or she did not set out that way” (Akers, 1994, p.128). Again, I lack the data to support any sort of hypothesis on this issue.