Edwin M. Lemert (May 8, 1912 – November 10, 1996) was a
sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
professor at the
University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...
.
Lemert was born in
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
,
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
. He acquired his bachelor's degree in sociology from
Miami University
Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public research university in Oxford, Ohio. The university was founded in 1809, making it the second-oldest university in Ohio (behind Ohio University, founded in 1804) and the ...
(class of 1934) and his doctorate from
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...
(class of 1939). He distinctly specialized in sociology and anthropology. For a short period of time he became a professor at Kent State and at Western Michigan Universities.
Even with all of the other sociologists back then, Lemert was able to view how most of the social acts are viewed as
deviant acts. While studying
drug addiction
Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to engage in certain behaviors, one of which is the usage of a drug, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences. Repetitive drug use oft ...
, he admired a powerful force at work. Beside the physical changes due to the addiction and all of the economic issues it can cause, there was an immense process of learning one's identity and justifying every action, "I do these things because I am this way."
Activities such as drinking and/or shoplifting do not reflect on an individual's personality. Lemert once wrote: "His acts are repeated and organized subjectively and transformed into active roles and become the social criteria for assigning status.....When a person begins to employ his deviant behavior or a role based on it as a means of defense, attack, or adjustment to the overt and covert problems created by the consequent societal reaction to him, his
deviation is secondary".
See also
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Interactionism
In micro-sociology, interactionism is a theoretical perspective that sees social behavior as an interactive product of the individual and the situation. In other words, it derives social processes (such as conflict, cooperation, identity forma ...
*
Labelling theory
Labeling theory posits that self-identity and the behavior of individuals may be determined or influenced by the terms used to describe or classify them. It is associated with the concepts of self-fulfilling prophecy and stereotyping. Labeling th ...
*
Primary Deviance
*
Secondary deviance
*
Deviance (sociology)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lemert, Edwin
1912 births
1996 deaths
American sociologists
Kent State University faculty
Miami University alumni
Ohio State University alumni
Educators from Cincinnati
University of California faculty
Western Michigan University faculty