what term did edwin lemert use to refer to societys response to deviant behavior?

Symbolic Interactionism

Symbolic interactionism is a theoretical approach that can be used to explicate how societies and/or social groups come to view behaviors as deviant or conventional. Labeling theory, differential association, social disorganization theory, and control theory fall within the realm of symbolic interactionism.

Labeling Theory

Although all of united states of america violate norms from time to time, few people would consider themselves deviant. Those who do, nevertheless, take frequently been labeled "deviant" by society and take gradually come up to believe it themselves. Labeling theory examines the ascribing of a deviant behavior to some other person by members of gild. Thus, what is considered deviant is determined non so much past the behaviors themselves or the people who commit them, but by the reactions of others to these behaviors. Equally a result, what is considered deviant changes over fourth dimension and can vary significantly across cultures.

Sociologist Edwin Lemert expanded on the concepts of labeling theory and identified 2 types of deviance that affect identity formation. Chief deviance is a violation of norms that does not result in any long-term effects on the individual's self-image or interactions with others. Speeding is a deviant act, but receiving a speeding ticket by and large does not make others view you as a bad person, nor does it alter your ain self-concept. Individuals who engage in principal deviance still maintain a feeling of belonging in society and are likely to keep to suit to norms in the future.

Sometimes, in more farthermost cases, primary deviance tin can morph into secondary deviance. Secondary deviance occurs when a person'due south self-concept and behavior begin to alter later his or her deportment are labeled as deviant by members of social club. The person may begin to have on and fulfill the role of a "deviant" as an deed of rebellion against the society that has labeled that individual as such. For example, consider a loftier school educatee who frequently cuts class and gets into fights. The educatee is reprimanded oftentimes past teachers and school staff, and before long enough, he develops a reputation as a "troublemaker." As a result, the student starts interim out fifty-fifty more and breaking more than rules; he has adopted the "troublemaker" characterization and embraced this deviant identity. Secondary deviance can exist then strong that it bestows a chief status on an private. A primary condition is a label that describes the primary feature of an private. Some people see themselves primarily as doctors, artists, or grandfathers. Others see themselves every bit beggars, convicts, or addicts.

The Right to Vote

Before she lost her task as an administrative banana, Leola Strickland postdated and mailed a handful of checks for amounts ranging from $90 to $500. By the time she was able to find a new job, the checks had bounced, and she was convicted of fraud under Mississippi law. Strickland pleaded guilty to a felony accuse and repaid her debts; in return, she was spared from serving prison fourth dimension.

Strickland appeared in court in 2001. More than ten years afterwards, she is still feeling the sting of her sentencing. Why? Considering Mississippi is ane of twelve states in the U.s. that bans bedevilled felons from voting (ProCon 2011).

To Strickland, who said she had e'er voted, the news came as a great shock. She isn't alone. Some 5.3 one thousand thousand people in the U.s.a. are currently barred from voting because of felony convictions (ProCon 2009). These individuals include inmates, parolees, probationers, and even people who accept never been jailed, such as Leola Strickland.

Should a one-time felony conviction permanently strip a U.S. denizen of the right to vote? (Photograph courtesy of Joshin Yamada/flickr)

Under the Fourteenth Amendment, states are allowed to deny voting privileges to individuals who have participated in "rebellion or other offense" (Krajick 2004). Although in that location are no federally mandated laws on the matter, most states exercise at least 1 form of felony disenfranchisement. At present, information technology's estimated that approximately 2.4 percent of the possible voting population is disfranchised, that is, lacking the right to vote (ProCon 2011).

Is it off-white to forbid citizens from participating in such an important process? Proponents of disfranchisement laws argue that felons have a debt to pay to lodge. Existence stripped of their right to vote is office of the punishment for criminal deeds. Such proponents signal out that voting isn't the only instance in which ex-felons are denied rights; state laws besides ban released criminals from holding public part, obtaining professional person licenses, and sometimes even inheriting property (Lott and Jones 2008).

Opponents of felony disfranchisement in the United States fence that voting is a basic human being right and should be available to all citizens regardless of past deeds. Many bespeak out that felony disfranchisement has its roots in the 1800s, when information technology was used primarily to cake black citizens from voting. Fifty-fifty nowadays, these laws disproportionately target poor minority members, denying them a chance to participate in a system that, as a social conflict theorist would signal out, is already constructed to their disadvantage (Holding 2006). Those who cite labeling theory worry that denying deviants the correct to vote will just further encourage deviant beliefs. If ex-criminals are disenfranchised from voting, are they being disenfranchised from society?

Edwin Sutherland: Differential Association

In the early 1900s, sociologist Edwin Sutherland sought to understand how deviant behavior developed amid people. Since criminology was a young field, he drew on other aspects of folklore including social interactions and grouping learning (Laub 2006). His conclusions established differential clan theory , which suggested that individuals acquire deviant behavior from those close to them who provide models of and opportunities for deviance. According to Sutherland, deviance is less a personal choice and more a consequence of differential socialization processes. A tween whose friends are sexually active is more than likely to view sexual activity as acceptable.

Sutherland'southward theory may explain why criminal offense is multigenerational. A longitudinal study beginning in the 1960s found that the best predictor of antisocial and criminal behavior in children was whether their parents had been bedevilled of a crime (Todd and Jury 1996). Children who were younger than ten years one-time when their parents were convicted were more likely than other children to engage in spousal corruption and criminal behavior by their early thirties. Fifty-fifty when taking socioeconomic factors such every bit unsafe neighborhoods, poor schoolhouse systems, and overcrowded housing into consideration, researchers establish that parents were the main influence on the behavior of their offspring (Todd and Jury 1996).

Travis Hirschi: Control Theory

Continuing with an examination of large social factors, control theory states that social control is direct afflicted by the strength of social bonds and that deviance results from a feeling of disconnection from society. Individuals who believe they are a part of society are less likely to commit crimes against it.

Travis Hirschi (1969) identified four types of social bonds that connect people to society:

1. Zipper measures our connections to others. When we are closely attached to people, we worry about their opinions of us. People conform to lodge's norms in order to gain approval (and prevent disapproval) from family, friends, and romantic partners.
2. Commitment refers to the investments we brand in the community. A well-respected local businesswoman who volunteers at her synagogue and is a member of the neighborhood block organization has more to lose from committing a offense than a woman who doesn't have a career or ties to the customs.
3. Similarly, levels of involvement, or participation in socially legitimate activities, lessen a person'due south likelihood of deviance. Children who are members of little league baseball teams have fewer family crises.
4. The terminal bond, belief, is an agreement on common values in society. If a person views social values as behavior, he or she will conform to them. An environmentalist is more likely to pick up trash in a park, because a make clean environment is a social value to him (Hirschi 1969).

Functionalism	Associated Theorist	Deviance arises from:
Strain Theory	Robert Merton	A lack of ways to attain socially accepted goals by accustomed methods
Social Disorganization Theory	University of Chicago researchers	Weak social ties and a lack of social control; society has lost the ability to enforce norms with some groups
Cultural Deviance Theory	Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay	Conformity to the cultural norms of lower-course society
Conflict Theory	Associated Theorist	Deviance arises from:
Unequal Organisation	Karl Marx	Inequalities in wealth and power that arise from the economic system
Power Elite	C. Wright Mills	Ability of those in power to define deviance in ways that maintain the status quo
Symbolic Interactionism	Associated Theorist	Deviance arises from:
Labeling Theory	Edwin Lemert	The reactions of others, particularly those in power who are able to determine labels
Differential Clan Theory	Edwin Sutherlin	Learning and modeling deviant beliefs seen in other people shut to the individual
Control Theory	Travis Hirschi	Feelings of disconnection from order

Summary of Theoretical Explanations of Deviance

The three major sociological paradigms offer different explanations for the motivation behind deviance and crime. Functionalists point out that deviance is a social necessity since it reinforces norms by reminding people of the consequences of violating them. Violating norms can open society'southward eyes to injustice in the organisation. Disharmonize theorists fence that law-breaking stems from a system of inequality that keeps those with ability at the top and those without ability at the bottom. Symbolic interactionists focus attention on the socially constructed nature of the labels related to deviance. Crime and deviance are learned from the environment and enforced or discouraged by those around united states of america.

Further Inquiry

Review the theory of differential association, labeling theory, and strain theory again in the following video:

Think It Over

1. Option a famous political leader, business leader, or celebrity who has been arrested recently. What crime did he or she allegedly commit? Who was the victim? Explain his or her deportment from the point of view of one of the major sociological paradigms. What factors best explain how this person might be punished if convicted of the law-breaking?

Practice

1. A student wakes up belatedly and realizes her folklore test starts in v minutes. She jumps into her car and speeds down the road, where she is pulled over by a police officer. The student explains that she is running tardily, and the officer lets her off with a warning. The student'due south actions are an example of _________.

1. primary deviance
2. positive deviance
3. secondary deviance
4. master deviance

2. A convicted sexual offender is released on parole and arrested two weeks later for repeated sexual crimes. How would labeling theory explain this?

1. The offender has been labeled deviant by club and has accepted a new principal status.
2. The offender has returned to his old neighborhood and so reestablished his former habits.
3. The offender has lost the social bonds he made in prison and feels disconnected from society.
4. The offender is poor and responding to the different cultural values that exist in his customs.

3. ______ deviance is a violation of norms that ______result in a person being labeled a deviant.

1. Secondary; does not
2. Negative; does
3. Main; does not
4. Master; may or may not

Self-Check: Theories of Social Deviance

You'll have more than success on the Self-Check, if you've completed the three Readings in this section.

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/alamo-sociology/chapter/reading-symbolic-interactionism-and-deviance/

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