... just simply something that broke the law. The ideas that followed by labelling theorists argued that no behaviour is "inherently" criminal, wrong or deviant. The behaviour only turns into that of criminal or deviant behaviour when it is labelled so by others in society-the reaction by society determines whether a crime has taken place or not. Even an extreme act such as murder is not universally defined as such. For example what is Euthanasia and a kind act by one person may become a cold blooded murder by the majority. (Roger, Hopkins and Burke: An Introduction to Criminological Theory, Ch8, P36). The basic universal idea of labelling theorists is that due to an individual having a negative label inflicted upon them by those in control (usually the bourgeoisie, the rich and the powerful) and be negatively stereotyped categorically, the individual lives up to the label and commences a criminal lifestyle. This is known as ...

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