Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
Lecture Notes
Chapter 11: Labeling Theory and Conflict/Marxist/Radical Theories of Crime
Learning Objectives
11.1 Summarize the basic assumptions of labeling theory.
11.2 Evaluate the research and criticisms of labeling theory.
11.4 Evaluate the research and criticisms of conflict perspectives.
11.6 Summarize the policies associated to labeling and conflict theories of crime.
Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
i. This chapter presents several critical criminology theories. It starts with a
discussion on labeling theory.
ii. Focuses on selected contributions to the conflict perspective, including the
related to the labeling and conflict theories of crime.
II. Labeling Theory
i. Labeling Theory: Theoretical perspective that assumes that criminal
behavior increases because certain individuals are caught and labeled as
offenders; their offending increases because they have been stigmatized.
ii. Unfair and inequitable treatment of underprivileged individuals in society.
III. Foundation
i. Symbolic interactionism: Social interaction involves symbolism.
ii. The process of obtaining one’s self–image through the “eyes of others” as
the looking-glass self.
iii. Primary groups are those characterized by intimate and personal
interactions.
Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
iv. Thomas’ concept of total situation: It consists of objective factors as well
v. Mead’s two types of social interaction: Nonsymbolic interaction and
Symbolic interaction
vi. Interpretation: Ascertaining the meaning of the actions or remarks of the
other person.
discounted one.
A. Frank Tannenbaum: The Dramatization of Evil
i. Tannenbaum focused on the process that occurs after an individual has
been caught and designated as violating the law.
ii. Dramatization of evil: States that when relatively minor laws are broken,
the community tends to dramatize it.
iii. Process of making the criminal: It involves tagging, defining, and
B. Edwin M. Lemert: Primary and Secondary Deviance
i. Primary deviance: In labeling theory, the type of minor, infrequent
offending people commit before they are caught and labeled as offenders.
ii. Secondary deviance: In labeling theory, the more serious, frequent
offending people commit after they have been caught and labeled as
offenders.
iii. Composition of sequence of interaction:
a. Primary deviation.
b. Social penalties.
c. Further primary deviation.
Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
iv. According to this perspective, when the societal reaction and label are
C. Howard S. Becker: The Dimensions of Deviance
i. Outsider: It refers to those individuals considered by others to be deviant;
these labeled individuals are deemed to be “outside” the circle of the
“normal” members of the group.
ii. A key aspect to labeling deviance is realizing that certain groups have the
power to impose rules, and subsequently labels, on other groups.
iii. Deviance has two dimensions:
a. Only those behaviors considered deviant by others are truly
deviant.
b. Whether a behavior or an act conforms to a certain rule
v. Pure deviant: Based on Becker’s typology, an individual who disobeys the
D. Edwin M. Schur: Defining Deviance
i. Ascribed status: Social position acquired as a result of the actions of
others.
ii. Key factors in labeling process:
a. Stereotyping: In labeling theory, usually associated with racial
prejudice and discrimination.
b. Retrospective interpretation: In labeling theory, the process by
E. Basic Assumptions
i. No act is intrinsically criminal.
ii. Criminal definitions are in interest of the powerful.
iii. Person does not become criminal by violating the law.
iv. Dichotomizing individuals: Contrary to common sense and research.
v. Only few are caught in violating the law.
Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
vi. Penalties vary according to the characteristics of the offender.
IV. Evaluating Labeling Theory
A. Research
i. Central focus: Deviance amplification due to labeling.
ii. Employee’s criminal court record effect on the reactions of potential
employers.
iii. Influence of insanity on behavior and perceptions of hospital staff.
B. Critiques
i. Propositions to be tested are not adequately specified.
ii. Lack of satisfactory data and empirical research: Evaluating the adequacy
of labeling theory has been difficult.
V. Conflict Perspectives
i. In the 18th and 19th centuries, consensus perspectives of law were
identified as “social contract theories.”
ii. Social contract theory stresses that law serves a necessary social function.
iii. A major proponent of this perspective, Thomas Hobbes, argued that
without either law or the state, individuals would pursue their self-interests
without considering how these pursuits could affect others.
iv. To avoid such a lawless condition, individuals enter into an agreement, or
consensus, to sacrifice their self-interests in an effort to form a society for
the common good of all people.
v. Criminologists from consensus perspective maintain
a. Law reflects the need for social order.
b. Law is a product of value consensus.
A. The Conservative (Pluralist) Conflict Perspectives
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i. Group-conflict theory: Vold argued that part of human nature is that
people’s lives are a part, and a product, of their group associations; groups
come into conflict with one another due to conflicting and competitive
interests.
ii. Basic types of criminological theories:
a. Spiritualism: Explanations are influenced by “otherworld” powers.
b. Naturalism: Explanations are more systematic and scientific.
iii. Three types of naturalistic theories:
iv. A key aspect to group conflict theory is recognizing the social process
view of society as a collection of various groups that are held together in a
dynamic equilibrium of opposing group interests and efforts.
v. This social process involves a continuous struggle to maintain, or enhance,
the position of one’s own group within the context of these other
competing groups.
vi. These social interaction processes grind their way through varying kinds
of uneasy adjustment to a more or less stable equilibrium of balanced
forces, called social order or social organization.
vii. Types of general conflict theory crimes:
a. Crimes arising from political protest.
viii. Austin Turk: The Power to Define Criminal Behavior
ix. Nothing and no one is intrinsically criminal; criminality is a definition
applied by individuals with the power to do so, according to illegal and
extra-legal, as well as legal criteria.
x. Theory of criminalization: It occurs through the interaction between those
who enforce the law and those who violate the law. This interaction is
objective.
xiv. Richard Quinney: The Social Reality of Crime: Quinney’s six prepositions
that described his social reality of crime:
a. Definition of crime.
B. Radical Conflict Perspectives
i. Marxist Criminology: Societies are characterized by class struggles.
ii. Bourgeoisie: A class or status Marx assigned to the dominant, oppressing
owners of the means of production; believed to create and implement laws
that helped retain their dominance over the working class.
iii. Proletariat: In Marx’s conflict theory, the oppressed group of workers
exploited by the bourgeoisie; they never profit from their own efforts
because the upper class owns and controls the means of production.
iv. Division of labor results in class struggles.
v. Class consciousness: Awareness of common interests among members in
a class was designated as class consciousness.
vi. False consciousness: Not being aware of these common interests was
identified as false consciousness. This false consciousness causes the
proletariat to believe that maintaining the capitalist system is in their best
interest, rather than in the interest of the bourgeoisie.
vii. Criminologists have incorporated Marxist ideology in three ways:
a. They have maintained that the law is a tool of the ruling class. The
law represents the interests of the ruling class, essentially
C. Additional Explanations of Crime Using a Marxist Framework
i. Colvin and Pauly’s Integrated Structural-Marxist Theory: They maintain
that structures of control have various “patterns associated with work,
Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
families, school, and peer groups and that those patterns form the
mechanisms for the reproduction of the class structure.”
ii. Working-class parents: Enforce an uneven and erratic family control
iii. Colvin and Pauly suggest that peer associations act as a mediator between
delinquent behavior and the other control structures of family and school.
iv. Herman and Julia Siegel Schwendinger and Adolescent Subcultures:
Capitalist economic system: It is conducive to developing and maintaining
various social class relationships that are primarily reproduced in
individuals’ places in the labor force.
viii. Social junk: Those individuals who are passive and do not attempt to
disrupt society are viewed by the dominant class as social junk.
ix. Social dynamite: Those individuals who question established
relationships, especially relations to production and domination, are
designated as social dynamite.
D. Research
i. Two broad approaches:
a. Studies examining laws that are formulated in the interests of those
in power.
E. Critiques
i. Similar finding may be interpreted in more than one way.
ii. Does not distinguish between alternative explanations.
Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
iii. Many empirical studies do not adequately specify which conflict
propositions on conflict theory are being tested.
VI. Additional Critical Theories
i. Three critical criminological theories: Peacemaking criminology, the
restorative justice perspective, and left realism.
A. Peacemaking Criminology
a. Incorporates three intellectual traditions: Religious, feminist, and
ii. Three predominate themes of peacemaking criminology:
a. Types of crime and social harms.
B. The Restorative Justice Perspective
i. Retributive justice: It refers to the repair of justice through a one-sided
approach of imposing punishment.
ii. Restorative justice: It refers to the repair of justice by reaffirming a shared
C. Left Realism
i. Four major processes that transformed criminological thinking:
a. Etiological crisis due to rising crime rates.
ii. Criticism: Theoretical perspectives placed too much emphasis on the notion
that crime is a result of the capitalist system and the abuses of those in the
“elite” class.
iii. Square of crime: Crime occurs at the intersection of a number of lines of
force.
VII. Policies Related to Labeling and Conflict Theories of Crime
i. Major policy implication of labeling research: If deviance amplification
occurs, the criminal justice agency, especially the juvenile justice system,
Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
iii. Sentencing laws have been challenged:
a. Some argue that these differences resulted in racial disparity.