Social Order and Social Control

This essay analyzes the labeling theory in criminology and its impact on social order and social control. It discusses how labeling theory empowers institutional change, how key organizations open or limit access to privileges, and how access to privilege affects the perception of social order and mechanisms of social control. It also explores how the emergence of the new criminology theory of labeling challenges the dominant social order of the day.

Running head: SOCIAL ORDER AND SOCIAL CONTROL
Social Order and Social Control
Name of the Student
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Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
1. Understanding how Labeling Theory Empowers Institutional Change...................................2
2. How Key Organizations Open or Limit Access to Privileges..................................................3
3. Understanding how the Access to Privileges affects how the Social Order or Mechanisms of
Social Control are perceived at that Time.......................................................................................4
4. Understanding how the Emergence of the New Criminology Theory of Labeling Challenged
the Dominant Social Order of the Day............................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Labeling theory in criminology refers to the fact that the behavior or the self-identity of an
individual is something that can be determined or influenced greatly by the terms that are used to
classify such behavior. Labeling theory is one that is associated with notions of self-fulfilling
prophecy and also with stereotyping (Barrick 2017). This essay analyzes the labeling theory in
detail by referring to the institutions and organizations of criminology that are relevant for this
theory. What the essay particularly looks at is how the labeling theory empowers institutional
change, how the key organizations open or limit access to privileges, how access to privilege
affects the understanding of the social order and the techniques and mechanisms of social control
and finally, the essay discusses how the emergence of this new criminology theory has
influenced, reinforced or challenged the dominant social order of the day.
1. Understanding how Labeling Theory Empowers Institutional Change
Institutional change refers to the change that takes place in an entire class or in an
entire organization. At the deepest level, institutional change refers to the changes in all of
the ideas that are seen to govern institutions. Two of the institutions that hold relevance for
any discussion on the labeling theory of criminology are the jail, and the center of
rehabilitation. Jails or prisons are detention centers or incarcerated rooms where people are
confined to for long periods of time, and at times, for even a life time, based on the gravity of the
offence that is committed by them. More often than not, jails have a role to play in demonstrating
what the labeling theory is all about. People who undergo a jail term, for a crime that they have
apparently not committed, and are released on bail at a later date, are labeled in society as people

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who are criminal in nature. The fact that they were wrongly accused of committing a crime is not
something that is taken into consideration at the time of labeling. Simply, the fact that such a
person was confined to incarceration for a certain period of time and is out on bail is enough for
bcertain categories of individuals to brand or label such a person as a criminal (Cullen
and Johnson 2017). The labeling theory can be said to empower institutional change where
jails are concerned as the outcome or consequences of labeling indicates that jails should
not be housing individuals who are wrongly or falsely accused of committing a crime. Such
persons should not even be sent to an ordinary lockup. The jail system is one that should be
reformed only to house or contain individual’s against whom factual evidence has been
provided in a court of law, regarding having committed a criminal offence.
2. How Key Organizations Open or Limit Access to Privileges
When it comes to organizations of criminology and the theory of labeling it is crucial to
remember that social work organizations have a vital role to play in preventing the act of labeling
from taking place (Hirschi 2017). As such, social organizations open access to privileges for
people who are victims of labeling. Social workers play an active role in getting people who go
to jail or who go to rehab from returning to mainstream life in a positive and constructive way.
Social workers help such individuals overcome the challenges that they are faced with by
providing them with counseling, social support in the form of a network of associates and peers
whose help they can count on, and at times, even small amounts of money as financial support.
This goes a long way in not only getting the people who have been in jail or who have been in
rehab with the ability to overcome the challenge of trauma and depression but also the means
that they need to get back to healthy living. This in turn also goes a long way in getting people

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who have been in jail or who have been in rehab from being unfairly labeled by members in
society as jailbirds and criminals who are to be avoided at best. Thus social work organizations
like NGO’s and even profit based organizations can have a crucial role to play in preventing
people from being unfairly labeled (Lilly et al. 2018). A person who has been in jail for a short
period of time because of a false accusation can use the aid and the support that is provided by
social workers to prove to the community that he lives in that he is not a criminal, that he had
been wrongly incarcerated and that the people who should actually be behind bars are still either
roaming free or have been caught and arrested. Social workers will engage this person in
valuable community service and will also invite him to give talks about his experience in jail so
that members of society get to see for themselves that this is not a man who is a hardened
criminal but who deserves sympathy and empathy because of the trauma that he has been made
to go through due to false accusations that resulted in him being wrongly imprisoned for a certain
period of time. The unfair labeling that is often carried out by members of society in such an
instance is something that will be easily prevented. This person will therefore be saved from a
life of crime because of the valuable work that is done by social work organizations or charity
based organizations to prevent the act of labeling from taking place. Social work organizations
are therefore needed in order to put a spanner in the works of those who engage in the unfair
labeling of people in society (Markowitz 2017).
3. Understanding how the Access to Privileges affects how the Social
Order or Mechanisms of Social Control are perceived at that Time
At the outset, what labeling is likely to do is generate a lot of animosity from the person who
is being labeled in the first place. Such a person is not going to like the idea of being branded or

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labeled as a criminal even when he is not. While there may be sufficient evidence at hand to
prove that he is anything but a criminal, the fact that he has spent a certain amount of time in jail
and has consequently been labeled by members of society as a jail bird and a person who is
therefore a criminal is going to make him feel absolutely isolated and ostracized once he makes a
return from the jail to mainstream life (Davis 1972). He is now a person who is labeled as a
criminal even though he is actually not so. This continued labeling by society can not only
invoke a lot of resentment in the person who is being made to go through such labeling but will
also compel him to take recourse to criminal behavior as a result of such labeling (Cullen and
Johnson 2017). The social work organizations come to the aid of such labeled persons by getting
them to be viewed favorably in the society. The social work organizations thus work in a positive
way to improve the perceptions that people have in the society of those who are being labeled
and unfairly at that. Social order or social control is quite unfair to people who are labeled as it
makes the labeled person come across as a person who is to be avoided and ostracized rather
than a person who deserves compassion and empathy because of the fact that he or she has been
wrongly labeled. Social work organizations thus have a crucial role to play in getting people who
suffer from the negative effects of being labeled to overcome such negative effects and survive
in society. Social work organizations make a contribution towards erasing the negative
perceptions that people in society have of those who have been labeled, by providing evidence of
the constructive work and activities that such people are involved in, and can be involved in
(McLaughlin et al. 2011).

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4. Understanding how the Emergence of the New Criminology Theory of
Labeling Challenged the Dominant Social Order of the Day
The time of that an individual is seen to spend in a criminal institution like a rehabilitation
center and the labeling that a person undergoes as a result of spending time in such an institution
can also go a long way in holding immense relevance for the theory of labeling as it is
understood and studied today. A person may be temporarily admitted into rehab because of a
drinking problem or because of a problem such as minor addiction to drugs. Based on how
successful the recovery process in the center for rehabilitation is, the authorities at the
rehabilitation center may choose to release him so that he can go back to leading a normal life in
society (Farrington and Murray 2017). Once this person makes a return to society, he will be
viewed by people in his immediate vicinity as well as people in his social circle as someone who
is recently returned from rehab and is therefore a person who does drugs, and alcohol, and thus
who should be avoided or ostracized (O’Brien 2005). Although this person may have
successfully recovered from a minor drug addiction problem or a minor situation of too much
alcohol consumption, the fact that he is labeled by members of society as a drug addict or an
alcoholic just because he has now gotten out of rehab, will generate the anger and the depression
that is needed in order to send him down that path again, this time around with a greater degree
of intensity. This time around, such a person may truly become an alcoholic. He will even angry
and depressed enough to engage in drinking bouts for long hours of the day (Gabbidon 2015). He
will not want to go out of the house and mingle with other people in the society because of the
fact that they have branded him as an alcoholic or as a drug addict already, and he may just
choose a path of self-destruction in order to avoid the shame and the guilt that come with the

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labeling that is levied against him. It is important to remember, that at the outset, this is a person
who was suffering from a minor problem of drug overdose or excessive alcohol consumption and
who was for a very brief period admitted into rehab in order to get cured (Cunneen and White
2011). But the labeling that comes with being in rehab in the first place, makes him isolated
enough socially, to go down the path of alcoholism or drug addiction or both, this time
permanently, to overcome the challenge of social ostracization, with both types of behavior
being severe enough to get such a person to take recourse to criminal behavior at some point or
the other (Hagan and Daigle 2018).
It is possible for a person who has recently returned from jail or from a rehabilitation
center to be branded as a criminal even though he may have been serving time at either or both
of these two institutions because of no fault of his own or because of the fact that he committed a
minor offense which he should not have. Members of society often fail to forget or take into
account the fact that such a person had been incarcerated or was spend time behind bars because
of the fact that he was misunderstood or wrongly accused of doing something, or because he was
going through a temporary period of drug and alcohol intake. Instead such society members label
the person as a drug addict and as a criminal, creating a lot of depression and trauma for the
person concerned and providing him with every reason to actually go down a path of criminal
behavior, which would not have been the case had he not been labeled (Messner and Rosenfeld
2017). In such a situation, apart from the valuable work that is done by charity based
organizations or social work institutions, the court of law can come to the aid of the person who
is being labeled (Matza and Blomberg 2017). The individual who is being labeled can go to a
court of law to protest against the unfair accusations and labeling that he is being subjected to,
and the court can initiate punitive action against the people concerned so that the labeling stops

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once and for all (North et al. 2013). However, more often than not, the effects of negatively
labeling a person are far and wide, and while the culprits who engage in the act of labeling may
be taken to task by a court of law, in actuality, the danger of labeling spreads far and wide, with
most members of society being ridden with the false notion that the person who was labeled is
for all good purposes a criminal or a drug addict, and a person who is therefore not to be engaged
with at any point of time. However, the value that a court of law can bring to a person who is
being labeled by providing him with the legal reprieve and actions needed to ensure that he is not
wrongly accused for anything, cannot be denied (Tittle 2018).
Conclusion
Thus, the theory of labeling in criminology can truly be regarded as one that has the most
detrimental impact on a person on whom it is carried out.

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References
Barrick, K., 2017. A review of prior tests of labeling theory. In Labeling Theory (pp. 97-120).
Routledge.
Cullen, F.T. and Jonson, C.L., 2017. Labeling theory and correctional rehabilitation: Beyond
unanticipated consequences. In Labeling Theory (pp. 63-85). Routledge.
Farrington, D.P. and Murray, J., 2017. Empirical tests of labeling theory in criminology.
In Labeling Theory (pp. 1-9). Routledge.
Gabbidon, S.L., 2015. Criminological perspectives on race and crime. Routledge.
Hagan, F.E. and Daigle, L.E., 2018. Introduction to criminology: Theories, methods, and
criminal behavior. Sage Publications.
Hirschi, T., 2017. On the compatibility of rational choice and social control theories of crime.
In The reasoning criminal (pp. 105-118). Routledge.
Lilly, J.R., Cullen, F.T. and Ball, R.A., 2018. Criminological theory: Context and consequences.
Sage publications.
Markowitz, F.E., 2017. Labeling theory and mental illness. In Labeling Theory (pp. 45-62).
Routledge.
Messner, S.F. and Rosenfeld, R., 2017. The present and future of institutional-anomie theory.
In Taking Stock (pp. 127-148). Routledge.
Tittle, C.R., 2018. Control balance: Toward a general theory of deviance. Routledge.

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North, D., Wallis, J.J. and Weingast, B., 2013. Violence and social orders. Cambridge:
Cambridge UP.
Cunneen, C. and White, R., 2011. Juvenile justice: Youth and crime in Australia. Oxford
University Press.
McLaughlin, E., Muncie, J. and Hughes, G. eds., 2003. Criminological perspectives: Essential
readings. Sage.
Davis, N.J., 1972. Labeling theory in deviance research: A critique and reconsideration. The
Sociological Quarterly, 13(4), pp.447-474.
O’Brien, M., 2005. What is cultural about cultural criminology?. The British Journal of
Criminology, 45(5), pp.599-612.
Matza, D. and Blomberg, T.G., 2017. Becoming deviant. Routledge.

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