The Labeling Process

Paper Summary:

In an article by Mercer L. Sullivan and Barbara Miller, the authors express their concern with the issues of adolescent violence and the context of moral panic. Sullivan and Miller (1999) criticize the process and reactions "characterized as moral panic" because they believe that youth violence is extremely exaggerated within certain communities and that this moral panic is a reaction caused by the media, school administrators, and community leaders. The paper then looks at an article by Thomas Szasz (1983), who believes that mental illness is nothing more than a myth, that it is a label placed on people in order to gain social control. He criticizes the psychiatrists and researchers and believes that they are after their own self-interests. The paper focuses on both articles and the similarities they share in relation to power-play among those in authority and the labeling process which stimulates moral panic and societal fears.

From the Paper:

"Unfortunately, the community, at times, exaggerates the situation and the media runs with the story, leaving a sense of uncertainty, insecurity, and moral panic among those who reside in the community including community leaders. However, "societal responses have cycled back and forth between attempts to provide special treatments" and "remove these treatments and impose harsher punishments"(p.264) among our youth. This has led the state in parenting our youths known as "parens patraie". This created "special courts and institutions for dealing with juveniles who break the law" (p.264). The problem here is that it has resulted in youths being stripped of their rights and has
caused harsher punishments leaving "youths as potential agents of lethal violence" .(p.265)"

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