Juvenile Delinquency And Labeling Theory

On April 13, 2016, I interviewed Mrs. Sarah Gibson at her residence, 87 East Ashmead Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Gibson can be contacted at (267) 774-3448. Mrs. Gibson is a thirty six year old woman and home maker who play a very vital role in her children’s lives and growth. She agreed to participate in this interview for the reason that as a juvenile, she engaged in many delinquent activities that caused her to have a few interactions with the law. When I first began the interview I had to keep in mind that my interviewee was someone who is now an adult and had not participated in such activities since they were a child. Therefore, I focused primarily on her family history, background, a few school experiences, the reasoning …show more content…
Mrs. Gibson stated that she was known as “the trouble maker” and “the bad one.” When I asked her how that made her feel she said she didn’t care and all it did was cause her to misbehave because that is what people expected from her anyway. Second, choice theory comes into play because Mrs. Gibson stated that she always thought about the consequences of her actions. She weighed the consequences and the benefits and made rational decisions. She believed that the benefits often outweighed the consequences, especially since she rarely got caught. Third, as discussed in class via text I learned that parental deviance can teach children to be criminal for the reason that they act off of what they see. During the interview, Mrs. Gibson mentioned her father used to steal and sell cars all the time. That could have been a reason she began doing so herself. Lastly, the text addressed social learning, which basically states that what children observe, is what they think is okay. A lot of Mrs. Gibson actions came from what she observed from her family and peers. Seeing that those individuals weren’t punished or frowned upon made it easier for her to think that the deviant activities she participated in were