Essay On Police Labeling

Food cans contain labels so that people may be informed of the type of ingredients it contains and nutritional facts. The purpose of the label is to inform people about the food that is inside the can so that people may purchase the item. The word, labeling, may be applied to the criminal justice field just as food cans, medicine, packages, and so many other items contain labels. Some people get a label just as other items get labeled for different reasons such as immigration status, behavioral, and different points of views of that person. Even teachers at times put labels on certain students such as the “good ones” and “bad ones” (Agnew, Cullen, & Wilcox, 2004). Once people receive a label of any sort it can go a long way with that person and make them feel anger, hurt, or sad. Labels hurt people in many ways. When someone gets arrested out on the street, people assume the worst of that person and label them a criminal, although people are …show more content…
Although labeling does occur like in the empirical test, such as the police labeling the juveniles as “bad kids” and keeping an eye out that’s the most these juveniles felt and they did not get themselves involved in the criminal career field. Tannenbaum and Lemert stated the following, “when wayward people experience stigmatizing societal reactions, their world is transformed into one in which their criminal (or deviant) status define their social existence and self-conception.” (1938, 1951, p.254) Both theorists shared the ideas on the labeling theory but both did have different inputs on the way labeling would work. The label theory may work under certain circumstances such as actually receiving a label from people, which does happen, but from showing an increase in crime might not be the case as the test disproved that it had no effect on them wanting to get back into