SOCI 304 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Informal Social Control, Labeling Theory, Symbolic Interactionism
Document Summary
Lecture outline: labeling theories, lemert: primary/ secondary deviance, becker: typology, deviant career, strengths. Limitations: policy implications, reintergrative shaming, gender and reflective appraisals. Social meaning of deviance: there is a social construction element to label objects and people. Not all members of society have equal power to label. Emphasis is on societal reaction to deviance. It is a way of spoiling someone"s real identity. It disqualifies a person to be accepted by society. Two foci: attempts to explain why certain behavior is socially defined as wrong and certain persons are selected for stigmatization (powerful imposes on powerless: then hypothesizes that discrediting labels cause the continuation of criminal or delinquent behavior. People become what you expect them to be. Draws on symbolic interactionism: exchange of meanings in our daily interaction. If we see something threatening then it becomes threatening. Looking glass self: we see ourselves as we perceive as other people see us.