Labeling Theory

Labeling theory (also referred to as societal reaction theory) analyzes how social groups create and apply definitions for deviant behavior. The approach examines how deviant labels emerge, how some social groups develop the power to impose deviant labels onto selected others, and the consequences of being labeled deviant.

Sociologist Howard Becker is credited with the most influential formulation of labeling theory, which appears in his book Outsiders (1973). According to Becker, deviance is not an intrinsic feature of behavior. Acts and individuals are not inherently deviant until some social groups can successfully define them that way. Labeling theory here builds from the symbolic interactionist tenet that people define and construct their identities from society's perceptions of them. Social groups project rules and definitions onto otherwise neutral behaviors to create deviance. Labeling theory addresses this transformation process and researches its aftermath.

Labeling theorists reject the idea that deviance is an objective phenomenon. They criticize accepting prevailing definitions of deviance as unproblematic and taken-for-granted categories. Labeling theorists instead suggest that deviance is relative and that no universal consensus exists regarding whether any given behavior is deviant. For example, acts defined as self-mutilation, such as branding, may be viewed as deviant or as a proud affirmation of membership in a tribal culture. What is considered deviant also changes over time. Homosexuality is no longer identified officially as a mental disorder in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, though it once was.

The relativity of deviance suggests that social groups work actively to enshrine some definitions for what is deviant into law while eliminating competing alternatives.

Labeling theorists investigate the social process of how deviant labels emerge. They refer to those who advocate particular constructions of what is deviant as moral entrepreneurs. Agents of social control who enforce the resulting standards are rule enforcers. Labeling theorists emphasize researching the motives and tactics that moral entrepreneurs use in their attempts to institutionalize their criteria for deviance.

Labeling theorists see deviance as relative not only in content but also in enforcement. Howard Becker (1973) suggests four categories of labeling. People who do not deviate are conformists. People who are labeled deviant even when they do not break the rules are falsely accused. People who are caught breaking the rules are pure deviants. People who break the rules without getting caught are secret deviants. Labeling theorists attempt to explain patterns of selective enforcement of deviant behavior. They reject studying the potential causal motivations of deviant individuals themselves, for example, avarice or mental illness, and focus instead on how authorities may selectively impose a deviant status onto some people but not onto others.

Why does the labeling spotlight shine more brightly on some than on others? Stereotypes about gender, race, class, and who fits preexisting stereotypes of deviants influence the labeling process. Being labeled deviant may depend more on individual demographics than on someone's actual behaviors. Rule enforcers may target particular groups in advance as likely deviants, as in racial profiling, which make any subsequent discoveries of deviance in sync with their initial expectations.

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