Reconsidering Labels and Primary Deviance

• Author: Jennifer Lutz,Stacy De Coster
• Published date: 01 August 2018
• DOI: 10.1177/0022427818771437
• Date: 01 August 2018
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Reconsidering Labels

and Primary Deviance:

False Appraisals,

Reflected Appraisals,

and Delinquency Onset

Stacy De Coster

1

and Jennifer Lutz

1

Abstract

Objective: We assess Matsueda’s reflected appraisals model of delinquency

across groups of previously delinquent and nondelinquent adolescents. We

hypothesize that the reflected appraisals process, which entails incorporat-

ing informal appraisals by significant others into self-identities, differs across

delinquent and nondelinquent adolescents. Method: We estimate cross-

group models of the reflected appraisals process among delinq uent and

nondelinquent adolescents using the data (National Youth Survey) and

methodology (structural equation modeling) from Matsueda’s original

research. Results: The informal labeling and identity processes articulated

in the reflected appraisals model better explain delinquency continuity than

delinquency onset. Notable differences across previously delinquent and

nondelinquent groups are found with respect to the influence of parental

appraisals on reflected appraisals and with respect to the influence of race

on parental and reflected appraisals. Conclusions: Informal labeling predicts

both continuity and onset of delinquency. Continuity results from

1

North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

Corresponding Author:

Stacy De Coster, North Carolina State University, Box 8107, Raleigh, NC 27519, USA.

Email: smcoster@ncsu.edu

Journal of Research in Crime and

Delinquency

2018, Vol. 55(5) 609-648

ªThe Author(s) 2018

Reprints and permission:

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DOI: 10.1177/0022427818771437

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delinquent adolescents incorporating troublemaking appraisals into their

self-identities and living up to those labels. Identity processes prove unim-

portant for linking troublemaking appraisals to delinquency among falsely

appraised adolescents. Future research is needed to assess the possibility

that false appraisals produce delinquency through processes articulated in

general strain and defiance theories. We also discuss avenues for future

research on race, identities, and delinquency.

Keywords

reflected appraisals, identity, juvenile delinquency

Criminological theory and research emphasize myriad interconnections

between self-identities and illegal behaviors. Research on reentry focuses

on the need for ex-offenders to replace criminal identities with conventional

identities for successful desistance to occur (Giordano, Cernkovich, and

Rudolph 2002; Maruna et al. 2004; Paternoster and Bushway 2009). Label-

ing and interactionist theories propose that a key process in the perpetuation

and intensification of crime includes accepting society’s definition of the

self as a law violator (Adams et al. 2003; Heimer a nd Matsueda 1994;

Matsueda 1992; Tannenbaum 1938). And, qualitative studies report that

innercity residents sometimes use criminal or deviant identities to avoid

engaging in crime and violence (Anderson 1999; Jones 2009). Despite

developments on many fronts in the literature on identities and law viola-

tion, limited consideration has been afforded to the link between criminal

identities and delinquency onse t. This may be due to early critiques of

labeling perspectives that led labeling proponents to concede they were

interested in exploring the continuity and amplification of law violation

and not in explaining the onset of criminal behavior (Lemert 1972). Given

the relevance of criminal identities for persistence in law violation, desis-

tance from crime, and crime avoidance, the present article revisits the

potency of informal labels and law-violating identities for understanding

delinquency onset.

In particular, our research assesses whether Matsueda’s (1992) reflected

appraisals model can explain the onset of law violation among previously

nondelinquent adolescents who are falsely appraised as delinquent by sig-

nificant others. Prior research supports the reflected appraisals model,

demonstrating that informal labeling by significant others influences delin-

quency by shaping self-identities in the form of reflected appraisals or

610 Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 55(5)

views of oneself from the perspective of others (Bartusch and Matsueda

1996; De Coster and Heimer 2001; Heimer and Matsueda 1994; Koita and

Triplett 1998; Matsueda 1992). Interactionists caution, however, that infor-

mal appraisals do not influence self-identities uniformly across groups

because people vary in the degree to which they actively negotiate, resist,

or incorporate delinquent labels into their self-identities (Hirschfield 2008;

Jensen 1980; Krohn and Lopes 2015; Larson and Garrett 1996; Sandstrom,

Martin, and Fine 2006). For instance, researchers have proposed

that females are less likely than males to assimilate delinquent appraisals

of themselves into their self-identities because males engage in more

delinquency than females and because delinquency is inconsistent with

core tenets of feminine identity but is consistent with masculine identity

(Bartusch and Matsueda 1996; De Coster 2003; Heimer 1996).

Researchers have not considered, however, that the interactionist process

through which reflected appraisals are formed might differ across groups of

previously delinquent and nondelinquent adolescents. As such, there is

insufficient evidence pertaining to whether informal labels that have not

been secured through involvement in delinquency lead previously nonde-

linquent adolescents to law violation by spoiling their self-identities. The

current study fills this gap in the literature by assessing the extent to which

the reflected appraisal process operates differently among those who have

been falsely appraised as compared to those who have secured their label

through engaging in delinquency. In particular, we assess whether previ-

ously delinquent and nondelinquent adolescents differ in the degree to

which they incorporate or reject delinquent labels from significant others

into their self-views and subsequent behaviors.

This article proceeds as follows: We begin with a discussion of

Matsueda’s (1992) reflected apprai sals model of delinquency. Next, we

offer our thesis that identity processes may be more relevant for understand-

ing continuity in law violation among true delinquents than for understand-

ing delinquency onset among falsely appraised adolescents. In doing so, we

discuss theoretical frameworks that suggest delinquency among falsely

appraised adolescents may be shaped primarily by processes specific to the

injustice or illegitimacy of false appraisals and only secondarily by identity

processes highlighted in the reflected appraisals model. We subsequently

derive hypotheses pertaining to identity processes for true delinquents and

falsely appraised adolescents from within the reflected appraisals model.

We then discuss the data and analytic strategy used to assess our hypoth-

eses. In the following section, we highlight key findings, and this article

concludes with directions for future research.

De Coster and Lutz 611