Defiance

The assigned readings touch upon 2 theories. The first theory is the theory of reintegrative shaming and the second is the defiance theory. The first part talks about primary and secondary deviance. The second part is about the reintegrative theory. The last part is about how defiance is formed.
In the first part Edwin Lemert talks about the labeling theory and criticizes it while also implementing his own ideas into the theory. He states that the labeling theory can lead to deviance by making a person believe that he/she is what they are being labeled. So for example, if I get caught shoplifting people are going to start labeling me a shoplifter. But perhaps my intentions were to steal food for my family. Yet by social standards I will be considered a shoplifter and I will be called one as well. So eventually I begin to identify my self as a shoplifter not as a person who needs food for my family. Lemert implies the primary and secondary deviance into the labeling theory.
Primary theory is when someone does something deviant but still identifies themselves for who they are. For example, if I was to get really drunk at a college party at the end of it all I would admit I was drunk but I would not call my self an alcoholic. Secondary deviance is when I start to identify my self as what I am being labeled. I'll keep using the first example to show secondary deviance. So let's say that that party that I got drunk there were people who saw me and after that event they begin to call me an alcoholic. Then they stop inviting me to the parties and I begin to drink more alcohol. Which then would lead to people still labeling me as an alcoholic to the point where I begin to identify myself as an alcoholic and actually become one. Bas...

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...ople saw this as unfair and began riots but since they could not attack the cops they attacked other people who were said to be disrespectful.
Reflection
After reading this chapter I couldn’t help but to agree with a lot of what was said. For example the fact that people act up more when they are disrespected by the cops. I believe that is true. Most of the times cops are really stubborn and they just ignore what you have to say. A good example of this is the recent video that came out of a man in NY who got off a bus and did not do anything but the cops still decided to arrest him and treat him as a criminal. This caused a national outrage because the cops treated the man unfairly. I think that events like the one shown in the video cause much outrage. People begin to hate the cops but since they cannot do anything to the cops they take it out on other people.