... Chicago school of Sociology and held by theorists such as Lemert and Becker, began to focus on the way in which negative labels get applied and on the consequences of the labelling process. Edwin Lemert, for example, made a distinction between 'primary deviance' and 'secondary deviance'. Primary deviance is rule-breaking behaviour that is carried out by people who see themselves and are seen by others as generally 'normal'. People break rules in all kinds of circumstances and for all kinds of reasons, due to this Lemert thought sociology could not possibly develop any general theories about primary deviance. But when a negative label gets applied so publicly and so powerfully that it becomes part of that individual's identity, this is what Lemert calls Secondary deviance. These dramatic negative labellings become turning points in that individual's identity; in future he or she is able "to employ his or her deviant behaviour ...

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