Labelling Theory and Social Control: Becker and Heidensohn

A different question

You have already met Merton, who asked why people break the rules and answered with strain and the five adaptations. The two theorists in this module do not offer a rival answer to that question. They ask different questions, which is why they sit together here. Becker, writing in 1963, asks who gets called a rule-breaker. His claim is that deviance is not a quality of the act itself but of the reaction to it, so the same behaviour can be deviant or unremarkable depending on who does it and who is watching. Heidensohn, writing in 1985, asks the third question: who is stopped from breaking the rules in the first place. Notice what both have in common. Merton looks at the offender. These two look at everybody else, at the people applying the label and at the structures doing the controlling. That shift is what the specification means by the social construction of crime and deviance.

The words labelling theory uses

Becker set these out in Outsiders in 1963, and the exam expects the terms themselves, not descriptions of them.

How a label becomes a career

Labelling theory describes a sequence, not a list. Put the five stages in the order Becker sets out.

• An act takes place that somebody chooses to treat as deviant
• Agents of social control react, and the label sticks
• The label becomes a master status, overriding everything else about the person
• Others treat the person accordingly, and a self-fulfilling prophecy sets in
• A deviant career develops, which may end in joining an organised deviant subculture

What labelling actually claims

Which statement best expresses the central claim of labelling theory?

• Deviance lies in the reaction to an act rather than in the act itself
• Crime does not really exist and nobody is ever genuinely harmed
• People become deviant because they lack the money to reach approved goals
• Anyone who is labelled deviant will inevitably go on to a deviant career

Formal and informal control

Social control means everything that keeps behaviour within accepted limits. The specification divides it in two, and the difference is about who is doing the controlling and what happens if you ignore them.

Sort the controls

Which two does labelling claim

Select the TWO statements that labelling theory makes.

• The same act may be treated as deviant for one person and overlooked for another
• Being treated as deviant can make further deviance more likely
• Deviance arises when a society values success more than the legitimate means of reaching it
• Deviance is caused by a shortage of written rules in modern societies

Control before punishment

Heidensohn, writing in 1985, starts from a pattern rather than a theory: women are convicted of far less crime than men. Rather than explaining this by anything about women themselves, she argues that patriarchal societies control women more effectively, so the question is not why women offend less but how they are prevented from offending at all. She identifies several mechanisms. Women are closely controlled within the home, where domestic responsibility limits both time and opportunity. Male breadwinners hold financial power, which constrains what women can independently do. Daughters are typically controlled more closely than sons. She also argues that women face the risk of male violence for challenging expected roles, and that control extends into public space through the threat of male sexual violence and through the reputational shame attached to women who are seen in the wrong places, an argument often described as separate spheres. Two things follow. Her account is a control theory rather than a strain theory, because it explains conformity instead of explaining offending. And, like labelling theory, it moves attention off the individual and on to the surrounding structure. Note that these are her arguments, and other sociologists dispute how much of the gap they explain.

Attributing, not asserting

In an exam, a theory should be attributed to the person who argued it, not stated as established fact. Select the ONE sentence that presents an argument as though it were simply true.

• Heidensohn argues that patriarchal societies control women more effectively than they control men.
• According to labelling theory, the reaction of agents of social control is what makes a label stick.
• Women commit less crime because they are controlled in the home and have less opportunity.
• Becker suggests that a master status can override every other part of how a person is seen.

How the control works

Heidensohn describes control operating in several places at once. Within the _____, domestic responsibility limits time and opportunity. The financial power of male _____ constrains what women can independently do. Within families, _____ are typically controlled more closely than sons. In public space, control works through threat and through the reputational _____ attached to being seen in the wrong places. Because it explains _____ rather than offending, this is a control theory rather than a strain theory.

Build the sociological sentence

Assemble a sentence in the register an examiner rewards.

Applying control theory

What makes the Heidensohn account a control theory rather than a strain theory?

• It sets out to explain why people conform, rather than why they offend
• It is about women, and strain theories are only about men
• It was written by a feminist sociologist
• It was written more recently than strain theory was

A paragraph that uses both

A question asks how far crime statistics reflect real differences in offending. Here is a paragraph that uses both theorists without simply describing them. Labelling theory suggests that official figures record the reactions of agents of social control as much as the behaviour of offenders, so a group that attracts more attention will appear more often in the statistics whether or not it offends more. Heidensohn approaches the same figures from the other direction, arguing that women appear less often because patriarchal control reduces their opportunity to offend in the first place. The two accounts are not rivals here. One suggests the figures overstate the offending of those who are watched closely; the other suggests they may reflect a genuine difference produced by control rather than by inclination. It can therefore be argued that the statistics measure a combination of behaviour and reaction, which is precisely why sociologists treat them as evidence to be interpreted rather than as a straightforward count. Notice three moves. Each theory is attributed rather than asserted. Each is used to answer the question rather than described in turn. And the paragraph ends in a judgement that follows from both.

Judging an explanation

A question asks you to assess sociological explanations of the difference between recorded male and female offending. Take the decisions in order.

• Where should you begin?
• You want to use labelling theory. What does it contribute here?
• You want to use Heidensohn. What does her account contribute that labelling does not?
• How should you write the conclusion?

Compare the two questions

Explain how labelling theory and control theory differ from strain theory in the question they set out to answer, and assess what each contributes to understanding crime and deviance.

• State the question strain theory answers, in one sentence, without explaining the five adaptations
• State the different question labelling theory answers, and name at least three of its key terms
• Explain what agents of social control do in that account, and why the theory needs them
• State the third question control theory answers, and name three mechanisms Heidensohn identifies
• Explain what labelling theory and control theory have in common in where they direct attention
• Finish with an assessment, attributing each argument and noting that each has been disputed