1. Labeling, Conflict, and Radical Theories
Chapter 8
Labeling, Conflict,
and
Radical Theories
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2. Chapter Outline
Labeling theory Conflict theory Radical theory

3. Warren Court
Found a pervasive influence of rules and customs that violated the concepts of:
Due process: People cannot be deprived of life, liberty, or property without lawful procedure
Equal protection: No one can be denied the safeguards of the law

4. Labeling Theorists
Explored how and why certain acts and people were defined as criminal or deviant
Viewed criminals as individuals who had criminal status conferred upon them by:
Criminal justice system
Community

5. Labeling Theory
Declares that the reactions of other people and the subsequent effects of those reactions create deviance
Segregated from society and labeled
Social interactionists: View human self as formed through a process of social interaction

6. Labeling Theory (continued)
Frank Tannenbaum
Described the creation of a criminal as a process that dramatizes evil
Edwin Lemert
Contended that there are two kinds of deviant acts
Primary and secondary deviations

7. Labeling Process
Individual commits a simple deviant act (primary deviation) There is an informal social reaction to the act Individual continues to break rules (primary deviations)

8. Labeling Process (continued 1)
There is an increased social reaction Individual commits a more serious deviant act (still primary deviation) There is a formal reaction Individual is now labeled delinquent by the court and bad by the neighborhood

9. Labeling Process (continued 2)
Individual begins to think of himself as delinquent
Individual commits another, yet more serious, deviant act
Individual is returned to juvenile court, has more offenses added to his record
Cast out further from conventional society
Takes on a completely deviant lifestyle

10. Labeling in the 1960s According to sociologist Kai Erickson
Deviance is a property conferred upon certain forms by audiences which directly or indirectly witness them
Critical variable in the study of deviance is the social audience rather than the individual actor

11. Labeling in the 1960s (continued 1)
According to Edwin Schur
Human behavior is deviant to the extent that it is viewed as involving a personally discreditable departure from a group’s normative expectation
Elicits interpersonal and collective reactions that serve to isolate, treat, correct, or punish individuals engaged in such behavior

12. Consensus Model Assumes that:
Members of society by and large agree on what is right and wrong
Law is the codification of these agreed-upon social values and helps settle disputes
Disputes arise when individuals stray too far from what the community considers acceptable

13. Conflict Theory Laws do not exist for the collective good
Rather, they represent the interests of specific groups that have the power to get them enacted
Laws have their origin in the interests of those few who shape the values and laws
Key concept is power

14. Conflict Theory and Criminology
George Vold
Process of lawmaking and crime control is a direct reflection of conflict between interest groups
Ralf Dahrendorf
Conflict can be either destructive or constructive
Austin Turk
Criminal state is imposed on the subordinate class

15. Radical Theory Arose from economic and social turmoil Friedrich Engels
Intellectual heritage of Marxist criminology finds its roots in nineteenth-century Europe
Friedrich Engels
Explained the association between crime and poverty as a political problem

16. Radical Theory (continued 1)
Karl Marx
Argued that all aspects of social life are determined by economic organization
Concluded that revolution is the only means to bring about change
Willem Adriaan Bonger
Argued that people in a modern capitalist society concentrate on production for profit

17. Radical Theory (continued 2)
Georg Rusche and Otto Kirchheimer
Made penologists aware that harsh treatment of offenders was related to the value of human life and economic needs
Penologists: Study the penal system

18. Radical Theory (continued 3)
Radical criminology
Concerned with the way the system controlled people
Rather than with traditional sociological and psychological explanations of crime
Radical criminologists share the central tenet of conflict theory
Laws are created by the powerful to protect their own interests

19. Critical Perspectives
Radical feminist theory
Addresses the male-centered approach present in Marxist theories
Views female crime in terms of class, gender, and race oppression

20. Critical Perspectives (continued 1)
Left realism
Emerged as a response to the perception that radical criminologists give importance only to the evils of elite deviance
Recognizes crime as an inevitable outcome of social and political deprivation
Seek a crime-control agenda, capable of being implemented in a capitalist system

21. Critical Perspectives (continued 2)
Abolitionist theory of criminology
States that crime and punishment have a reciprocal effect on each other
Advocates the redistribution of power by returning it to communities and individuals, in order to fix the existing power differential

22. Critical Perspectives (continued 3)
Anarchist theory of criminology
Destruction of communities by the state is at the root of crime
Peacemaking criminology
Advocates humanistic, nonviolent, and peaceful solutions to crime
Part of an intellectual and social movement toward restorative justice