• Persuasive Speech : A Persuasive Advertisement

    1341 Words | 6 Pages

    Persuasive Advertisement There are many ways advertisement can persuade one person to buy the specific product. Making advertisements are difficult. It takes a lot of time to make one good advertisement. Whenever someone open television, they will see many kinds of advertisement playing every single minute, however, only one can successfully persuade someone with their product. To persuade them they need to play it on correct time and channel. The more powerful advertisement is, the more impression

  • Persuasive Speech : Persuasive Outline

    2149 Words | 9 Pages

    Dyadic Persuasive Comprehensive OutlineGeneral Purpose: To persuadeSpecific Purpose: To persuade my audience how to be more successful as a college student.I. IntroductionA. Attention Getter: How many of you have said that there are too many options? Whether you are talking about choosing a college, class selection once you get to college, or even something as simple as choosing what to eat for dinner tonight. If you made a choice on what career field you will enter after college, you come to

  • Persuasive Essays : Persuasive Essay

    897 Words | 4 Pages

    When I began this class, I loved to write persuasive essays. I loved to write about my own opinions and I was quite good at convincing people to agree with my stand points. To convince others to agree on my point of view was an extraordinary feeling. I am very good at getting my point across and giving my reasons on why I feel the way I do about a certain situation. I loved writing persuasive essays because I love to read them as well. I love how persuasive essays have a call-to-action; giving the

  • Persuasive Writing

    1908 Words | 8 Pages

    becomes an even heavier task. This is in part what I have learned through community based writing and in particular the National Day on Writing project. The art of persuasion and rhetoric is an ever-evolving art within the social media world. Persuasive writing is one of the most common types of writing styles used in the world. It may contain only one or several arguments and offers support for the main claim in order to convince the reader of the writer’s opinion. The primary objective is to

  • Persuasive Essay : Persuasive Communication

    859 Words | 4 Pages

    Persuasive communication is directly involved in education. Teachers have to be persuasive or the students won’t learn. Authority is a defining concept that must be utilized in education, or the system cannot run properly. Authority manifests itself in several ways within the education system for an educator. On one hand, the educator is an authority figure to the students that she teaches. On the other hand, teachers are not the authority figure when it comes to administrators. Superintendents and

  • Persuasive Writing

    1044 Words | 5 Pages

    Nowadays persuasive writing is one of the most common types of writings used in the world. It contains only one or perhaps several arguments and offers support for the main claim in order to convince the reader of the writer’s opinion. The primary focus is to change the way the reader thinks about a specific argumentation or claim. In order to obtain desirable results, the writer needs to be aware of the audience the script could have, and the general purpose of the writing itself. For instance,

  • Persuasive Essay - Persuasive Travel

    1121 Words | 5 Pages

    Persuasive Travel EssayYou just got the news that you won the lottery. What are you going to do? How about travel to a mystical, relaxing island? Bora Bora will have you hooked with its crystal clear water. I wish I could go back to this exquisite heaven where the sun is always shining. The warm welcome followed by the tropical, soft pink leis, is very inviting. Although often related to Hawaii, I can assure you this island is much better. From the culture to the landmarks, this island has it all

  • Argumentative Writing : Persuasive And Persuasive

    896 Words | 4 Pages

    Argumentative and persuasive witting are sometimes hard to distinguish from one another. The goal of persuasion writing is to conquer or win over your audience while the goal of argumentative writing is to “convince by demonstrating the truth” (Barnet; Bedau, pg.71). Argumentative writing is defined as “a genre of writing that requires the student to investigate a topic; collect, generate, and evaluate evidence; and establish a position on the topic in a concise manner.” There are many different

  • Persuasive Essay

    743 Words | 3 Pages

    written in 1965 and discussed the civil rights movement. In it, he implored local governments to allow all American citizens, regardless of race, to vote. Despite the significant gap in time between these two addresses, both speakers use similar persuasive techniques, including ethos, pathos, and parallelism, to convince their audience that change needs to be implemented in America. To begin, both speakers use ethos to enforce their arguments. For instance, Douglass proclaims, “Standing with God

  • Persuasive Essay

    873 Words | 4 Pages

    Evan Bennett November 4, 2010 Persuasive Essay Gay discrimination is a major problem that affects individuals all across the country. The Defense of Marriage Act needs to be repealed. First, the Defense against Marriage Act will be explained and then why it needs to be repealed, then the effects the law has on society. The federal government needs to give same sex couples the same health benefits that heterosexual couples receive. Currently, the government offers employees benefits such as health

Persuasive writing is written with the purpose of persuading or convincing the audience to get them to believe in an idea or opinion.  It's a form of non-fiction writing and the writer can use authoritative, emotional, factual and logical arguments to persuade the reader.These sample texts can be used as great persuasive writing examples (KS2) to demonstrate the key features and aspects. Labeling theory, in criminology, a theory stemming from a sociological perspective known as ‘symbolic interactionism,’ a school of thought based on the ideas of George Herbert Mead, John Dewey, W.I. Thomas, Charles Horton Cooley, and Herbert Blumer, among others.

Page12345678950
Labeling theory
  • Theoretical contributions
Please select which sections you would like to print:
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

Join Britannica's Publishing Partner Program and our community of experts to gain a global audience for your work! Sherry Lynn Skaggs
Assistant Professor of Criminology, University of Central Arkansas. Her contributions to SAGE Publications's Encyclopedia of Race and Crime(2009) formed the basis of her contributions...

Persuasive Essay Examples

Alternative Title: labelling theory

Labeling theory, in criminology, a theory stemming from a sociological perspective known as “symbolic interactionism,” a school of thought based on the ideas of George Herbert Mead, John Dewey, W.I. Thomas, Charles Horton Cooley, and Herbert Blumer, among others. The first as well as one of the most prominent labeling theorists was Howard Becker, who published his groundbreaking work Outsiders in 1963.

A question became popular with criminologists during the mid-1960s: What makes some acts and some people deviant or criminal? During this time, scholars tried to shift the focus of criminology toward the effects of individuals in power responding to behaviour in society in a negative way; they became known as “labeling theorists” or “social reaction theorists.”

In 1969 Blumer emphasized the way that meaning arises in social interaction through communication, using language and symbols. The focus of this perspective is the interaction between individuals in society, which is the basis for meanings within that society. These theorists suggested that powerful individuals and the state create crime by labeling some behaviours as inappropriate. The focus of these theorists is on the reactions of members in society to crime and deviance, a focus that separated them from other scholars of the time. These theorists shaped their argument around the notion that even though some criminological efforts to reduce crime are meant to help the offender (such as rehabilitation efforts), they may move offenders closer to lives of crime because of the label they assign the individuals engaging in the behaviour. As members in society begin to treat these individuals on the basis of their labels, the individuals begin to accept the labels themselves. In other words, an individual engages in a behaviour that is deemed by others as inappropriate, others label that person to be deviant, and eventually the individual internalizes and accepts this label. This notion of social reaction, reaction or response by others to the behaviour or individual, is central to labeling theory. Critical to this theory is the understanding that the negative reaction of others to a particular behaviour is what causes that behaviour to be labeled as “criminal” or “deviant.” Furthermore, it is the negative reaction of others to an individual engaged in a particular behaviour that causes that individual to be labeled as “criminal,” “deviant,” or “not normal.” According to the literature, several reactions to deviance have been identified, including collective rule making, organizational processing, and interpersonal reaction.

Becker defined deviance as a social creation in which “social groups create deviance by making the rules whose infraction constitutes deviance, and by applying those rules to particular people and labeling them as outsiders.” Becker grouped behaviour into four categories: falsely accused, conforming, pure deviant, and secret deviant. Falsely accused represents those individuals who have engaged in obedient behaviour but have been perceived as deviant; therefore, they would be falsely labeled as deviant. Conforming represents those individuals who have engaged in obedient behaviour that has been viewed as obedient behaviour (not been perceived as deviant). Pure deviant represents those individuals who have engaged in rule breaking or deviant behaviour that has been recognized as such; therefore, they would be labeled as deviant by society. Secret deviant represents those individuals who have engaged in rule breaking or deviant behaviour but have not been perceived as deviant by society; therefore, they have not been labeled as deviant.

Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now

According to sociologists like Emile Durkheim, George Herbert Mead, and Kai T. Erikson, deviance is functional to society and keeps stability by defining boundaries. In 1966 Erikson expanded labeling theory to include the functions of deviance, illustrating how societal reactions to deviance stigmatize the offender and separate him or her from the rest of society. The results of this stigmatization is a self-fulfilling prophecy in which the offenders come to view themselves in the same ways society does.

Key concepts: primary and secondary deviance

Primary deviance refers to initial acts of deviance by an individual that have only minor consequences for that individual’s status or relationships in society. The notion behind this concept is that the majority of people violate laws or commit deviant acts in their lifetime; however, these acts are not serious enough and do not result in the individual being classified as a criminal by society or by themselves, as it is viewed as “normal” to engage in these types of behaviours. Speeding would be a good example of an act that is technically criminal but does not result in labeling as such. Furthermore, many would view recreational marijuana use as another example.

Persuasive Essaymr. Becker

Secondary deviance, however, is deviance that occurs as a response to society’s reaction and labeling of the individual engaging in the behaviour as deviant. This type of deviance, unlike primary deviance, has major implications for a person’s status and relationships in society and is a direct result of the internalization of the deviant label. This pathway from primary deviance to secondary deviance is illustrated as follows:

Persuasive Essaymr. Becker's Classrooms

primary deviance → others label act as deviant → actor internalizes deviant label → secondary deviance

Theoretical contributions

There are three major theoretical directions to labeling theory. They are Bruce Link’s modified labeling, John Braithwaite’s reintegrative shaming, and Ross L. Matsueda and Karen Heimer’s differential social control.

Quick Facts

Persuasive Essaymr. Becker's Classroom Assessment

key people
related topics