Effects Of Crime And Deviance

Punishing and blaming an individual for committing a crime has always been a part of society and its moral entrepreneurs. Whether the delinquent is able to reintegrate back to a normal functioning society or not; he will always carry the tag of being neglectful, troublesome and even in some cases stupidity with himself. In this essay we will examine how much of a strain this tag puts on individual’s life by evaluating the observations made by sociologists and psychologists throughout the years in order to test labeling theory. Moreover, we will analyse the effect that the community leaves on a former delinquent and if they would receive help and rehabilitation. All reasoning behind what is crime and deviant can be explained by one theory;
As Kai Erikson mentioned in Notes of Sociology of Deviance (1962-1964), if we imagine the society as a particle then the “main organizational principle” is the nucleus of the system. This set of values is established and any act outside of the nucleus will be deemed as misconduct and deviant. This set of boundaries is recognized by most residents of the community and those who surpass it will receive punishment and face repercussion by authorities of the system. If an individual is released after being prosecuted or hospitalized for his faults and disturbance to the community; he/she will be stigmatized and eventually, this trait will become his identity and master status. A master status is what the other members of the community remember him/her by; this label is essentially what they will get from the society in order to separate the “normal” from the criminal and caution each other
Labeling increases crime when deviance becomes ones self-fulfilling prophecy; once he has lost hope and feels as though there are no ways to go back and reintegrate into the society without being stigmatized is when he chooses crime as his life time career path. But labeling can help to reduce crime rates if it brings a promising rehabilitation and support in rare cases. Even though most labeled criminals are not given a second chance but there can be events where the trajectory of crime ends and heads to some prosperity and growth, such as the case in The Saint and Roughnecks where Jack and Herb received recognition and scholarships for their hard work as an athlete from colleges. As observed by Chambliss, they both accepted this reintegration to society and shortly after became honorable members of community.