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Unlock This CourseHoward Becker (1963) revolutionised how sociologists understand crime and deviance by suggesting that deviance is not inherent in an act but is created when rules and sanctions are applied to "offenders". His famous quote sums up this approach: "Deviance is not a quality of the act a person commits, but rather a consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions to an 'offender'."
Key Definitions:
According to Becker, no act is inherently deviant. An act becomes deviant only when others perceive and label it as such. This means that deviance is created by society rather than being a quality of the behaviour itself. What is considered deviant varies across cultures, time periods and even different social contexts within the same society.
Becker explains that labelling happens when powerful groups in society (like the police, courts, or media) identify certain behaviours as deviant. Once a person is labelled as deviant (e.g., "criminal," "drug addict," or "troublemaker"), this label can become their master status, overshadowing all other aspects of their identity and changing how society treats them.
Becker proposed that becoming deviant involves a series of stages that form a "deviant career." This process shows how labelling can push someone deeper into deviant behaviour:
The initial rule-breaking act, which might be experimental, accidental, or situational. At this stage, the person doesn't see themselves as deviant.
The person is caught and publicly identified as deviant. This could involve formal sanctions (arrest, exclusion from school) or informal ones (gossip, social rejection).
The person begins to accept and act according to the deviant label, engaging in further deviance as a response to society's reaction to them.
Becker identified "moral entrepreneurs" as key players in the labelling process. These are individuals or groups who campaign to have certain behaviours defined as deviant and to have rules created against them. Becker divided them into two types:
People who campaign to have certain behaviours defined as deviant. They often have strong moral convictions and believe they're on a mission to make society better. Examples include temperance campaigners who pushed for alcohol prohibition or anti-drug campaigners today.
Those who enforce the rules, such as police officers, teachers, or social workers. They develop their own practices and categories for identifying deviance, which can lead to stereotyping and targeting specific groups.
Being labelled as deviant can have profound effects on a person's life and identity:
William Chambliss's classic study (1973) perfectly illustrates Becker's labelling theory. Chambliss observed two groups of boys in the same American high school:
👤 The Saints: Middle-class boys who regularly skipped school, drank alcohol, vandalised property and drove recklessly. However, they were polite when confronted by adults and came from "good families."
👤 The Roughnecks: Working-class boys who engaged in similar deviant activities but were more visible as they hung around in public places.
Despite similar behaviour, the Saints were seen as "good boys who were just being rowdy," while the Roughnecks were labelled as "troublemakers" and "headed for jail." The Saints went on to university and successful careers, while many Roughnecks ended up with criminal records. This shows how labelling is often influenced by social class and can create a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Becker's ideas continue to be relevant today and have influenced various areas of social policy:
Research shows how labelling students as "troublemakers" or "low ability" can create self-fulfilling prophecies. Modern approaches try to avoid negative labelling and focus on positive reinforcement.
Restorative justice and rehabilitation programmes aim to avoid stigmatising offenders. Youth cautions and diversionary schemes try to prevent young people from developing criminal identities.
There's growing awareness of how psychiatric labels can stigmatise people. Anti-stigma campaigns and person-first language (saying "person with schizophrenia" rather than "schizophrenic") reflect labelling theory principles.
Police stop and search practices in the UK demonstrate labelling theory in action. Statistics consistently show that Black people are 9 times more likely to be stopped and searched than White people. This disproportionate targeting can be explained through Becker's concept of stereotyping by rule enforcers.
The consequences align with Becker's theory: young people who are repeatedly stopped may develop negative attitudes toward authority, feel alienated from mainstream society and potentially engage in secondary deviance. This example shows how institutional practices can create and reinforce deviant labels for certain groups.
Howard Becker's labelling theory fundamentally changed how we understand deviance by shifting focus from the deviant individual to the social processes that define and respond to deviance. His work reminds us that what counts as "deviant" is not fixed or natural but socially constructed and influenced by power relationships.
For your iGCSE Sociology exam, remember that Becker's theory is part of the interactionist perspective, which focuses on small-scale interactions rather than large social structures. You should be able to compare it with other approaches to crime and deviance, such as functionalist, Marxist and realist perspectives.