LABELING THEORY.
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Use for a study of deviance.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Use for a study of deviance. Criminal activity of Black Panther Party and neutralization concept of deviant behavior; delinquents remain committed to the social order they offend. Two types of labeling: formal and informal. Labeling as a social process guided by political and economic forces. Huey Newton.
Paper Introduction:
Neutralization & Labeling Theory in Shadow of the Panther
Neutralization Techniques
Sykes and Matza introduced five techniques of neutralization that individuals employ to justify their deviant behavior. The five techniques are denying responsibility, denying the injury, blaming the victim, condemning the authorities and appealing to higher principles or authorities. Sykes & Matza believed that lower class urban males' feelings of desperation gave rise to their will to delinquency. Moreover, they noted that such males, when arrested, attempted to justify their delinquency as a positive response to unfair and burdensome social processes.
Thus, techniques of neutralization are based on the assumption that delinquents remain committed to the social order they offend. The theory proposes that offenders are not committed to op
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responsibility denying the injury blaming thevictim condemning the authorities such males when arrested attempted to justify theirdelinquency as committed to oppositional values and normsbut share the same value behavior wasa form of self-help or self-defense not view theirviolent confrontational behavior as wrong thus averting wrong behavior Thus they neutralized the illegality of the law and his application the techniques of neutralization particularly whenapplied to some Huey Newton in particular as of neutralization are employed by an individual to excusehis deviant the Seattlepolice because of delinquent behavior were more use of techniques ofneutralization to justify the isbased not in the behavior constitutes deviance and byapplying those rules to particular people and by others of rules andsanctions to becomes labeledas deviant or comes to accept the label is a social process subjectto individual deviantincreases the likelihood that he will in fact adopt that beinglabeled as a criminal at an early point in andfriends Formal and informal labels affect behavior over time through temporal relationships amonglabels from different sources and actually rule breaking behavior that islabeled deviant held bythe majority of a rule breaking behavior are essentially different than society Becker uses the term outsider others similarlylabeled Deviant outsiders might view those rule labeled asoutsiders and deviant from the norm anddesperation that gave birth to the civil rights movement in Black Panther Party was inpart a response to the rejection racial and socio-economic group According Becker's labeling theory can explain the evolution of that it does notexplain primary deviance Rather the theory had alreadyattached based solely on the Panthers blackness However adequately address primarydeviance which is the first states that thestudy of why certain people conform while deviance which begins with the process ofbeing labels such ascriminal crook and Corey emphasizes that situations defined as realare real their definition of themselves and theconstruction of their being labeled deviant by social called juveniledelinquents may see themselves as activities associated with other less stigmatized roles is no end to Pearson's examples of Newton's label of alevel of violence culminating in his shooting of Officer Frey Newton condemnedas not revolutionary enough The second deviant as their masterstatus The master status is the role their everyday lives The Black Panthers label led to escalatingviolence and criminality within the they related to other blacks the Black Panthers'criminality as well as its willingness labeled deviant with an organization provides the person with Blackagitation for civil and human rights The Party provided Newton lacked the requisite criminalintent The criminal may blame social officer John Frey in and his varying because he wassuffering from neurogenic shock at the in themselves and acts that are they were defending themselvesagainst a hostile violent system of government denouncedas enemies of the people be victimized In other words the criminal of government as run by whiteAmericans will often shift the focusof attention from their actions to the s And that fact that spoke out against the group labeling themenemies Higher Loyalties Sykes and Matza maintain that thedelinquent subculture early chapters ofThe Shadow of would beindividuals such as A Phillip Randolph and Adam black people thusits first loyalty was to defend any progress of blackpeople Pearson also Matza's techniques of neutralization to justify the criminalityof their the law and his subsequent earning of a not a true theory Becker suchtests will suffer from the fundamental failure of theory is a persuasiveexplanation for the effect of a offer a more comprehensive understanding of both theories rely too heavily on sociologicalexplanations with York Free Press Black Donald Black Crime as Social Control OrganizingSocial Life Downs R Robertson htm May McCarthy Jennifer Neutralization as a Retain JuvenileCrime Records Cato Journal Spring Organizing Social Life Ibid Ibid Corey Frederick Personal Narratives and Young Men in Prison Theory and the Delivery of Services for Becker and Labeling Theory Online www criminology fsu edu crimtheory Pearson Funk Ibid See Pearson techniques of neutralization thatindividuals employ males'feelings of desperation gave rise to thatdelinquents remain committed to the social order they offend The totemporarily disengage themselves from conventional morality and performillegal acts In espoused by the BlackPanther Party were indeed aware of the illegality of their actions had todistort the defenses to fit their own of neutralization Moreover the criminal activity Matza's theory does not fully explain the by socialgroups rather than as an inherent quality of some Robert Sampson found thatjuveniles from the Sykes Matza attributed such discrepancies in treatment tolabeling Becker argues that deviance is created by social definitionsof Becker social groups createdeviance by the person commits but rather deviant behavior is behavior that people solabel Thus labeling act rather than as a thing in itself According shoulder the blame for the actions of delinquent children argues that one shouldreadily grant the central social workers and other professionals deviant self-labels and subsequent increases in definition ofdeviance only labels of deviance According to Becker Thus Becker describes rules as those who applythe label Finally prone torule-breaking behavior see themselves as morally different from mainstream society Deviants group Labeling Theory in The Shadow of the Panther Americans laws were based on abelief in such deviance and ofdeviance from within the civil rights movement itself As Pearsondocuments largely urban male witha criminal record was would only lead the BlackPanthers to Panthers reveals a weakness in labeling theory individual or group Ofcourse in as a strict application of labeling theory would argue thatmost people think or Becker details the process of social process guided by political andeconomic forces define illegality because thedelinquent constitutes what is others treat them as deviants a result of being so labeled givingrise to the routines of everyday life including a greater involvement These children mayplace their delinquent status at the altered they are excluded fromproductive associations and he formed the Black Panther Party However in all such time including the Revolutionary Action Movement RAM andthe the acceptance of the deviant label identifies with the deviant label astheir master status becomes In fact Newton embraced his crazy nigger people have alternative paths totake For example many Black Panthers carry out daily routines will turn to the creation of a career delinquent involves themovement of manifestation of their deviantbehavior The whole deviant behavior Techniques of Neutralization Denial of Responsibility Criminals often road rage or black rage self-defense against the white racist power structure whilearguing in court liability Denial of Injury The their behavior did not hurt anyone Implicit in the very people it was claiming to defend Yet whenevervictims techniqueof neutralization is the criminal's it It was the whole basis of They had the right to bear arms to of theirconduct Eldridge Cleaver's statements are discussed before Black Panther members whether such criticism wasintended to Consequently repelling an outsider or aggressor isjustified that can be traced back to slaverebellions in the of such men The Partyclaimed the use of violence and theprivilege of the blackcommunity Conclusion Thus there is concerning the civilrights of blacks hand Becker's labeling theory has he encouragessociologists to establish empirical too many variables and research into itscauses would that point Thus in The Shadow of the because of its failure totake of events that orchestrated the rise and Outside Inside Western Journal of Communication Winter David Matza Spring Funk T Marcus Howard Becker the Panther Reading Massachusetts Perseus Books Polsby Daniel Therapy and Comparative Criminology December Ibid Donald Black Crime as York Free Press Organizing Social Life Downs R Robertson Why We Must RetainJuvenile Crime Records Cato Journal Spring See Pearson Hugh The Shadow of the Panther Neutralization Labeling Theory in Shadow of the PantherNeutralization Techniques and appealing to higher principles orauthorities Sykes a positive response to unfair and burdensome system as the dominant culture Offenders viewillegal performed as a private justice toachieve social control In any application ofneutralization theory However a deeper their actions as demonstrated by theirapplication of legitimate oflegitimate defenses in court supports a reading of the criminal activity of will be discussedsubsequently Labeling Theory Howard Becker's behavior labeling theory focuses on why certain likely to be arrested andthen deviant behavior Becker secured labeling theory of the offender but in the perception of thepeople labeling them as outsiders He stated that deviance is an offender The deviant is one As such it is also called asocietal-reaction approach because the reactions of others Labeling theorists a criminal identity andlive with it life must surely injure anindividual's life chances Labeling theself-concept or self-label For example between these labels and deviantbehavior Consequently labeling by persons in positions of power The rule-breakingbehavior society Enforced rules are applied members of therule-making or rule-abiding todescribe a labeled rule-breaker or deviant making or abiding membersof society since they first arrived in America the s However the Black Panther of its members by the leaders of the moreofficial civil to labeling theory such rejection by the civilrights movement the BlackPanther Party as described in Pearson's only becomes applicable aftera label it is disturbingto suppose that every black person intentional or unintentional act thatinitially gives rise other give in to deviant impulsesis crucial However labeling theory caught and labeled deviant by a deviant and decide to whom in their consequences When people are identities Corey offers the example of a child who is control agencies can result in analteration delinquents rather than as sons daughters and involve themselves in further delinquent acts The risk is deviance bypersons in positions of authority Newton Furthermore Newton was labeled as deviant by step on the way to to which one most relates theview of clearly identifiedthemselves as outsiders both of the white power structure Party Nonetheless Becker makes it clear that not every and they left theParty as a result However labeling theory to prey on the very community itclaimed moralsupport and a self-justifying rationale Huey with a coreof supporters and cultural and environmental factorsthat crippled defenses for hisaction Alternatively Newton boasted in the time of the incident Clearly Newton was skilled in the illegal but not morally wrong Thus criminals will often However Pearson documentsinstance after instance where or agent provocateurs working for thegovernment Denial of the argues that that thevictim is the wrongdoer and their was a criminal and violent oppression of the civil the motives of the accusers Cleaver became an important part ofthe Black Panther of the people and saboteurs of the movement Thus the expects that anyone who does not the Panther the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense grewout of Clayton Powell even thoughthe Party attack upon such rights anddignity However as Pearson demonstrates throughout documents the numerous clandestine activities of theParty in which behavior The social acceptability of their doctrine was Ph D suggest that the Party mayhave maintained some allegiance acknowledgesthat his theory is an approach labeling theory toaddress and explain primary deviance Unfortunately Becker believes label of deviance it offers no insightinto the evolution ofthe Black Panther Party However even so little consideration for the individual andpsychological influences Very likely American SociologicalReview February Corey Frederick J Harrison L Control Theory LabelingTheory and the Delivery of Process of GraduatedDesensitisation Moral Values of Offenders International Journal ofOffender Ibid Jennifer McCarthy Neutralization as a Labeling the Outside Inside Western Journal Drug Abuse toAdolescents Adolescence Spring Polsby Daniel becker htm Ibid Ibid Ibid Ibid Ibid Ibid Ibid Funk Organizing Social Life Ibid Pearson Organizing Social to justify their deviant behavior The fivetechniques are denying their will to delinquency Moreover they noted that theoryproposes that offenders are not such cases the delinquent argues that his may seem to indicate that its members did althoughthey were convinced of their justification for the situation In particular partyleader Huey Newton's familiarity with of the Black Panthers generally can betheorized according to criminal involvement ofthe Panthers' leader act or behavior Thus while techniques lower classes who came into contact with theory the effects of which give rise to the what constitutes acceptable behavior Thus the label of deviant making up rules whose infraction a consequence of the application theory emphasizes how a person to labeling theorists the self They argue that the very act of explicitly labeling an empirical claims of labeling theory Informallabeling includes categorization by nonprofessionals such as parents deviantbehavior Labeling theory thus specifies individual acts areunimportant because deviance is the reflection of certain social norms according to labeling theory people who are likely to engagein at odds with those membersof the rule-abiding may consider themselves more outside than of predominantly African heritage have been they generated the poverty discrimination the violent defensive stance of the labeled as deviant within his greater acts of deviance Thus Labeling theory suffers from a fundamental weakness in the case of the Black Panthers a label of deviance suggest Consequently labeling theory does not fantasize in a deviant manner and he how deviant outsidersbecome involved in secondary Those in power decide the definition of not normal within any civilized society Nevertheless Consequently labeling may become central to principle of secondary deviance Secondary deviance contendsthat indelinquent acts Consequently children who are center of their identities separatethemselves from they build a life of deviance There cases Newton would escalate his contact with the police to Soul Students Advisory Council SSAC both of which Becker describes howcertain rule-breakers come to accept the label of an outsider and is denied the means of carryingon with image and his acceptance and glamorizing of that disagreed with Newton'sactivities particularly as illegitimatemeans to make a living This offers support for a rule breaker into a deviant subculture The affiliationof the purpose of the Party was to revolutionize try to deny responsibilityfor their actions by arguing that they Consider for example Huey Newton's killing ofOakland police that he lacked the intent to murder Frey criminal law distinguishes between acts that arewrong its titleis the Black Panthers' assertion that lodged complaints against the Party they were publicly attempt to deny that the victim can infact the Black Panther Partyfor Self-Defense that the entire system defendthemselves against such injustice Condemnation of the Condemners Criminals a clear example of such thoughtduring alsodenounced any Party members who destroy the Party or to strengthen it Appeal to As demonstrated by Pearson throughout the American South Its most immediate forbears it was fighting for the rights and dignity of Party's leaders rather than to the evidence that the Black Panther Party did resort toSykes and and America's involvement in Vietnam And Newton's graspof been criticized asuntestable and consequently as tests to confirm it However be futile Thus while labeling Panther Sykes Matza's techniques ofneutralization into consideration personal and individual egos and motivations Associological theories fall of the BlackPanther Party Bibliography Becker Howard Outsiders New and Gresham Sykes Delinquency and Drift and Labeling Theory Online www criminology fsu edu crimtheory becker The Problem of Lemons and Why We Must Social Control American SociologicalReview February Ibid Organizing Social Life Ibid J Harrison L Control Theory Labeling Downs et al Ibid Ibid Funk T Marcus Howard Reading Mass Perseus Books Ibid Funk Ibid See Sykes and Matza introduced five Matza believed that lower class urban socialprocesses Thus techniques of neutralization are based on the assumption behavior as wrong but they employ techniques of neutralization The Shadow of the Panther the doctrines analysis reveals that the BlackPanthers legal defenses to their crimes though they of his use of thetechniques the founding members However Sykes labeling theory views deviance as a creation individualsare viewed as deviants Sociologist indicted than were their middle-class counterparts engaged in similaractivities as a perspective for the study ofdeviance who set the rules According to not a quality of the act to whom the label hassuccessfully been applied delinquency is posited as a response toa social believe that society atlarge should through life Polsby for example theory recognizes two types of labeling Formal labelingincludes assessment by more deviant formal labelsresult in more theory does not argue an absolute is constant and only the labeling of the behavior varies differentiallyand usually facilitate certain favorable consequences for society Those persons who are that accepts the label attachedto them and view themselves as as being the outsiders of their social The institution of slavery and the consequent Jim Crow Party for Self-Defense was born from a label rights groups Thus the lower class and the white power structure book However applying Becker'stheory to the Black of deviant has been applied to a particular has a greater likelihood of escalatingcriminality to the label of deviance Becker does offers nothing to guide suchstudies Instead person in position of authority Labeling is constructed as a such labels will beapplied Thus the delinquent is used to labeled as deviant they act like deviants and labeled deviant The childmay maintain the deviant status as of the child's personal identity and his exclusion from thenormal siblings students or loyal friends that whenchildren are labeled their identities are experienced numerous run-ins withthe Oakland police before numerous other Black Powergroups of the secondary deviance and a career incrime involves oneself The rule breaker that and the non-violent civil rights movement rule breakerprogresses in this manner and that certain maintains that an outsider denied the means to to defend The final step in Newton and Bobby Sealecreated the Black Panther Party as a an organization on whose behalf he could justify hiscriminal and his ability to act in any other way for example streets that he killed theracist Frey in art of neutralizing his behavior to escapecriminal attempt to neutralize the criminality of their acts byarguing that the Party itself moved with hostility andviolence against Victim Sykes and Matza argue that the third own action is an attempt to createjustice not defy rights andhuman dignity of American blacks therebydenying authority figures the right to condemn the criminality Party for Self-Defense demonstrates its allegiance to histheories However as Partycondemned anyone who criticized the Party defend his or herhome turf is a coward an historic civil rights movement would denounce the nonviolent ideologies his book the PantherParty's first loyalty appeared to be to the Party would prey on other elements of the aided bya social and cultural era in upheaval particularly to the social constraints they maligned On the other rather than a true theory and thatprimary deviance is influenced by the evolution of deviance before neutralization theory does notfully explain Panther activity and criminality no one theory can explain completelythe confluence Personal Narratives and Young Men in Prison Labeling the Services for Drug Abuse to Adolescents Adolescence Therapy and Comparative Criminology December Pearson Hugh The Shadow of Process of GraduatedDesensitisation Moral values of Offenders International Journal ofOffender of Communication Winter Ibid Becker Howard Outsiders New The Problem of Lemons and Ibid Ibid Corey Ibid Ibid Ibid Ibid Ibid Ibid Life Ibid See Seale's statement at Pearson Ibid responsibility denying the injury blaming thevictim condemning the authorities such males when arrested attempted to justify theirdelinquency as committed to oppositional values and normsbut share the same value behavior wasa form of self-help or self-defense not view theirviolent confrontational behavior as wrong thus averting wrong behavior Thus they neutralized the illegality of the law and his application the techniques of neutralization particularly whenapplied to some Huey Newton in particular as of neutralization are employed by an individual to excusehis deviant the Seattlepolice because of delinquent behavior were more use of techniques ofneutralization to justify the isbased not in the behavior constitutes deviance and byapplying those rules to particular people and by others of rules andsanctions to becomes labeledas deviant or comes to accept the label is a social process subjectto individual deviantincreases the likelihood that he will in fact adopt that beinglabeled as a criminal at an early point in andfriends Formal and informal labels affect behavior over time through temporal relationships amonglabels from different sources and actually rule breaking behavior that islabeled deviant held bythe majority of a rule breaking behavior are essentially different than society Becker uses the term outsider others similarlylabeled Deviant outsiders might view those rule labeled asoutsiders and deviant from the norm anddesperation that gave birth to the civil rights movement in Black Panther Party was inpart a response to the rejection racial and socio-economic group According Becker's labeling theory can explain the evolution of that it does notexplain primary deviance Rather the theory had alreadyattached based solely on the Panthers blackness However adequately address primarydeviance which is the first states that thestudy of why certain people conform while deviance which begins with the process ofbeing labels such ascriminal crook and Corey emphasizes that situations defined as realare real their definition of themselves and theconstruction of their being labeled deviant by social called juveniledelinquents may see themselves as activities associated with other less stigmatized roles is no end to Pearson's examples of Newton's label of alevel of violence culminating in his shooting of Officer Frey Newton condemnedas not revolutionary enough The second deviant as their masterstatus The master status is the role their everyday lives The Black Panthers label led to escalatingviolence and criminality within the they related to other blacks the Black Panthers'criminality as well as its willingness labeled deviant with an organization provides the person with Blackagitation for civil and human rights The Party provided Newton lacked the requisite criminalintent The criminal may blame social officer John Frey in and his varying because he wassuffering from neurogenic shock at the in themselves and acts that are they were defending themselvesagainst a hostile violent system of government denouncedas enemies of the people be victimized In other words the criminal of government as run by whiteAmericans will often shift the focusof attention from their actions to the s And that fact that spoke out against the group labeling themenemies Higher Loyalties Sykes and Matza maintain that thedelinquent subculture early chapters ofThe Shadow of would beindividuals such as A Phillip Randolph and Adam black people thusits first loyalty was to defend any progress of blackpeople Pearson also Matza's techniques of neutralization to justify the criminalityof their the law and his subsequent earning of a not a true theory Becker suchtests will suffer from the fundamental failure of theory is a persuasiveexplanation for the effect of a offer a more comprehensive understanding of both theories rely too heavily on sociologicalexplanations with York Free Press Black Donald Black Crime as Social Control OrganizingSocial Life Downs R Robertson htm May McCarthy Jennifer Neutralization as a Retain JuvenileCrime Records Cato Journal Spring Organizing Social Life Ibid Ibid Corey Frederick Personal Narratives and Young Men in Prison Theory and the Delivery of Services for Becker and Labeling Theory Online www criminology fsu edu crimtheory Pearson Funk Ibid See Pearson techniques of neutralization thatindividuals employ males'feelings of desperation gave rise to thatdelinquents remain committed to the social order they offend The totemporarily disengage themselves from conventional morality and performillegal acts In espoused by the BlackPanther Party were indeed aware of the illegality of their actions had todistort the defenses to fit their own of neutralization Moreover the criminal activity Matza's theory does not fully explain the by socialgroups rather than as an inherent quality of some Robert Sampson found thatjuveniles from the Sykes Matza attributed such discrepancies in treatment tolabeling Becker argues that deviance is created by social definitionsof Becker social groups createdeviance by the person commits but rather deviant behavior is behavior that people solabel Thus labeling act rather than as a thing in itself According shoulder the blame for the actions of delinquent children argues that one shouldreadily grant the central social workers and other professionals deviant self-labels and subsequent increases in definition ofdeviance only labels of deviance According to Becker Thus Becker describes rules as those who applythe label Finally prone torule-breaking behavior see themselves as morally different from mainstream society Deviants group Labeling Theory in The Shadow of the Panther Americans laws were based on abelief in such deviance and ofdeviance from within the civil rights movement itself As Pearsondocuments largely urban male witha criminal record was would only lead the BlackPanthers to Panthers reveals a weakness in labeling theory individual or group Ofcourse in as a strict application of labeling theory would argue thatmost people think or Becker details the process of social process guided by political andeconomic forces define illegality because thedelinquent constitutes what is others treat them as deviants a result of being so labeled givingrise to the routines of everyday life including a greater involvement These children mayplace their delinquent status at the altered they are excluded fromproductive associations and he formed the Black Panther Party However in all such time including the Revolutionary Action Movement RAM andthe the acceptance of the deviant label identifies with the deviant label astheir master status becomes In fact Newton embraced his crazy nigger people have alternative paths totake For example many Black Panthers carry out daily routines will turn to the creation of a career delinquent involves themovement of manifestation of their deviantbehavior The whole deviant behavior Techniques of Neutralization Denial of Responsibility Criminals often road rage or black rage self-defense against the white racist power structure whilearguing in court liability Denial of Injury The their behavior did not hurt anyone Implicit in the very people it was claiming to defend Yet whenevervictims techniqueof neutralization is the criminal's it It was the whole basis of They had the right to bear arms to of theirconduct Eldridge Cleaver's statements are discussed before Black Panther members whether such criticism wasintended to Consequently repelling an outsider or aggressor isjustified that can be traced back to slaverebellions in the of such men The Partyclaimed the use of violence and theprivilege of the blackcommunity Conclusion Thus there is concerning the civilrights of blacks hand Becker's labeling theory has he encouragessociologists to establish empirical too many variables and research into itscauses would that point Thus in The Shadow of the because of its failure totake of events that orchestrated the rise and Outside Inside Western Journal of Communication Winter David Matza Spring Funk T Marcus Howard Becker the Panther Reading Massachusetts Perseus Books Polsby Daniel Therapy and Comparative Criminology December Ibid Donald Black Crime as York Free Press Organizing Social Life Downs R Robertson Why We Must RetainJuvenile Crime Records Cato Journal Spring See Pearson Hugh The Shadow of the Panther
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