Labelling and crime:

• Understand why labelling theorists consider crime and deviance to be socially constructed
• Understand the labelling process and the consequences for those that are labelled
• Evaluate the strengths and weakness of the labelling process

OK so so far we have looked at some of the theoretical perspectives that aim to explain crime from a societal perspective; what I mean by this is that Marxist and functionalist perspectives (including subcultural) are structural and therefore macro perspectives.



What we also want to analyse are the micro perspectives - that of labelling theory, which is a social action perspective.



Make sure you understand this perspective in order to compare it to the structural views. In the exam you may be asked to assess this view; you can do so using macro perspectives!