Blog8-Labeling Theory
After reading the assigned readings this week and our discussions in class several things went through my mind about the labeling theory. The labeling theory was quite popular back in the 1970s and the 1980s, but has been somewhat hidden in recent years due to the mixed results of empirical research. Several studies have found that being labeled a criminal increased an individual of committing another crime while others did not. Now theoretical work has revised the theory and more attention is now being devoted to informal labeling by parents, peers, and teachers. It has been said that informal labeling has a greater impact on crime than official labeling. Informal labels affect individuals’ perceptions of how others see them. A young juvenile who believes that others see them as delinquents and trouble-makers are more likely to act in accord with this perception and engage in delinquency.
For me one of the most visible signs of this is now within our school systems. At almost every elementary, middle, and high school throughout the United States you are sure to find a School Resource Officer (SRO) on campus. Don’t get me wrong I am a parent and want and expect my child to be safe while at school and truly do believe that these officers do serve a purpose however I think what we first had in mind for them has taken a drastic change in recent years. I can almost guarantee you that if you go to low income schools such as Orchard Knob and East Lake academy you won’t find an SRO there because now these same individuals that we have put in place to ensure our children’s safety are more concerned with making arrest for fighting in these schools. Instead of calling the children’s parents like we did many years ago SRO’s now put them in handcuffs and transports them to jail. I’m sure most of us have gotten into fights in school as we were growing up and within a month we were best friends with the individual with whom we had been fighting. Some of these children have never been in trouble a day in their young lives but are now labeled a criminal or trouble maker by their teachers and peers and in some cases must conform to that in order to proceed with their education. I do believe children that act up at school need to be disciplined but I believe that the parents need to take a more active role in this and leave the SRO’s at the school ensuring our children are safe not at the juvenile detention center for hours on end because someone was in a childhood fight.