Year: 1997
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Labeling theory proposes that it is not the actor alone, but the reactors, or agents of social control who determine whether or not a youth will progress down a delinquent path. This paper reports the results of a multiple regression model that used longitudinal data to examine interactive effects of negative social sanctions, namely the application of stigmatizing labels. Specifically, this study examines the effects of the charging and diversionary practices of the police on recidivism among young offenders, in a southern Ontario region. As key gatekeepers of the juvenile justice system, it is the police who ultimately determine which youths will be processed through the system. The model asserts that the most important predictor variables of recidivism include a set of both legal; age, sex, community, and extra legal variables; charge laid, seriousness of the first offence, severity of the disposition for the first offence and severity of disposition, and seriousness of subsequent offences. It is concluded that the labeling perspective may have the potential of directing us into the type of research that will inform us as to what the police really do and what the consequences of these actions really are.
Author: Tara Leigh Henderson
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3194779569