al sanctions. In the not so distant past it was illegal to have or to perform an abortion, but the law in the United States was changed to make abortion legal for both the recipient and the provider. These two examples serve to reinforce the validity of labeling theory.
The central points of labeling theory described by Goode (2001) include the necessity of audiences that generate the labeling process, the nature of labeling and stigmas, reflexivity or the response to labeling, the so-called inner world of deviance, the "stickiness" of labels, and the self-fulfilling prophecy (Goode, 2001). Audiences decide what is and is not deviant and how it will be addressed by society. When an audience labels an activity deviant, it then labels a specific individual as a deviant and exerts a stigmatizing effect (Goode, 2001).
The concept of reflexivity refers to looking at the self in part through the eyes of others. The looking glass self is a concept that recognizes that being stigmatized by others can indirectly or directly le
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