Crime and deviant behaviour is socially constructed, that is, society has created the label of crime to certain behaviours. Howard Becker (1963) said “Deviancy 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’. Deviant behaviour is behaviour that people so label”. Lemert (9877) study of cheque forgers found they took part in the consistent behaviour regularly even before they were caught and labelled. There are other studies supporting labelling has no effect, Robins, ‘Deviant Children Grow Up’ (1966) the influence being labelled as mentally ill as a child has little effect (16%) in the likelihood of being labelled as an …show more content…
This is because these approaches ignore the important influential role played by society when it comes to the problem of crime and recognising its causes and how best to manage it. As a result, sociological explanations often also stand in strong with the views adopted by politicians, the media and people who prefer to only blame criminals for their