in this article please critque it and follow the professors insturctions. please dont copy anyone else essay i will be looking for reports and i have my own system that i look through forplagarism.
read through the article
find information for labeling theory and control theory and below there somethings from the text book i will want you to include but also do research.
As with fashions, ideas can be influenced by fads, even ideas that attempt to explain crime. Labeling theory came to the forefront during a time when various assumptions concerning societal authority were being questioned and reexamined. Near the end of the 1950s, the unfair and inequitable treatment of underprivileged individuals in society was becoming a widespread concern for many Americans. As a result, protests and demonstrations were held to fight for civil rights and women’s rights. Others were questioning the legitimacy of political authority regarding U.S. foreign policy in Vietnam. Thus, many protested the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War; a number of these protests were held on college campuses.
Within this broader societal context, scholars were also beginning to question existing explanations of crime. These scholars maintained that too much emphasis was placed on explaining individual characteristics contributing to criminal behavior. These scholars were concerned with the structure of social class and power; thus, the labeling perspective is not overly concerned with questions of why an individual engages in deviant behavior. Rather, it focuses on such questions as, “Who applies the ‘deviant’ label to whom? Who establishes and enforces the rules?”9 Specifically, these scholars argued that it is important to understand how criminal, or deviant, behavior is defined or labeled. Furthermore, these scholars were interested in how society reacts to this labeled behavior.
Critiques :
There have been various critiques of labeling theory, including the following:
The various propositions to be tested are not adequately specified. This lack of specificity does not allow researchers to empirically examine the relationship between significant variables. Charles Tittle noted that advocates of labeling theory argue “that the particular strength of labeling theory lies in its resistance to formalization and in its vagueness and ambiguity, since such features alert us to important aspects of social life which are themselves relativistic and elusive.”Due to the lack of satisfactory data and empirical research, evaluating the adequacy of labeling theory has been difficult. Furthermore, since the theory is vague with respect to its propositions, it is difficult to obtain additional information from research conducted for other purposes.53 Additional refinement is needed, especially with respect to deviance amplification.54Labeling theory focuses on the reaction to criminal and/or deviant behavior. It avoids the question of causation; specifically, why do some individuals commit a certain act while others do not? Labeling theory focuses on the “reactors” rather than the “actors.” Thus, it views the “actor” or “labellee” as overly passive.56 John Hagan emphasized that labeling theory would likely benefit empirically from the recognition of a reciprocal relationship in terms of the actor and reactor, stimulus and response, and preexisting differences and “reaction effects.Labeling should be viewed as a perspective rather than a theory. Specifically, it is not a theory in the strictest sense, nor does it focus exclusively on the act of labeling. Rather, it is one approach to studying a general area of human activity. Erich Goode argued that not only is labeling theory not a theory; it may not even be a perspective. Instead of examining deviance in general, the theory examines specific features of deviance.
Labeling theory- Not overly concerned with questions of why an individual engages in deviant behavior; rather, it is important to understand how criminal, or deviant, behavior is defined or labeled, as well as how society reacts to this behavior.
look at what these people had to say about labeling theory : Frank Tannenbaum, Edwin Lemert, Howard Becker, Edwin Schur.
