Coercion and Punishment in Long-Term Perspectives

This chapter reports the results of a series of models that specify conditions under which the effect of negative social sanctions on deviant behavior (net of the effect of earlier deviant behavior on negative social sanctions and later deviant behavior) is relatively strong or weak.

Negative social sanctions from the labeling perspective

Social sanctions are reactions by others to the real or imagined behavior of an individual. The sanctions serve as either intended or perceived rewards/punishments for the behavior. The concept has been presented in sociological contexts as potentially powerful for understanding the processes underlying the continuation or escalation of deviant behavior. Two competing bodies of literature have developed that relate to the effect of punishment on behavior (Sherman & Berk, 1984). The deterrence literature hypothesizes that punishment deters people from repeating crimes for which they are punished. Labeling theory, on the other hand, fosters “the ironic view that punishment often makes individuals more likely to commit crimes because of altered instructional structure, foreclosed legal opportunities and secondary deviance” (1984, p. 261). The empirical support and theoretical basis of the labeling hypothesis (that individuals will engage in further deviance as a result of punitive response) have been evaluated extensively over the years.

Empirical support

Punitive social responses have been associated with subsequent acquisition of deviant identities and conformity to deviant roles. Farrington (1977) concluded that publicly labeled youths had higher self-reported delinquency scores than did the nonlabeled youths.