societal reaction approach. It is the response toan act and not the behavior itself that determines deviance. It is also a repeating process. First theteachers, counselors, and other children label the child a troublemaker, then the parents reinforcethe idea and treat the child as a troublemaker, then the child may accept this definition as part ofthe self-concept (how we see ourselves) and act as a troublemaker. There are many different aspects of the labeling theory, including power and labeling aswell as sin and sickness. A very crucial part of the theory, is recognizing who has the ability tolabel other people. People in power, such as police, probation officers, psychiatrists, judges,teachers, school officials, and the wealthy all have the power to define a label and apply them toothers. In 1937, marijuana use was not illegal in the United States. But, a powerful group, theFederal Bureau of Narcotics, campaigned to have it declared illegal. At the time, Prohibition hadrecently ended, and the bureau had to either find a new enemy or go out of business. They, alongwith their former enemies, the Consolidated Brewers, launched a huge campaign to depictmarijuana as a dangerous drug. Up until then, it had simply been looked at as a pleasure-inducingsubstance. They associated marijuana with violence, wild activity involving orgies, and othercriminal acts. The campaign was successful in labeling marijuana use as deviant. It doesn’t take afinancial genius to figure out why the breweries as well as the FBN opposed the use of marijuana.The breweries felt that marijuana use took away their clients and cut deeply into their accounts.And the FBN simply needed a new fight. These two groups were not interested in the well beingof others, but in the well being of their piggy banks. This is one of the more obvious examples ofthe extent to which what is deemed legal and accepted, and what is deemed illegal or deviantdepends more on politics ...
