Fritz Sack

Fritz Sack is a German sociologist and criminologist best known for introducing the labeling approach (Etikettierungsansatz) to the German-speaking world and for his critical engagement with power, law, and social control. He held professorships at several German universities, most notably at the University of Hamburg, where he significantly shaped critical criminology in Germany. Sack played a leading role in institutionalizing empirical legal sociology and critical criminology as academic fields.

Sack is regarded as one of the key figures in the development of critical criminology in Germany. He translated and expanded upon labeling theory (inspired by Howard Becker, Edwin Lemert, and others), emphasizing the social construction of deviance and the role of legal and police institutions in producing deviant identities. He argued that criminal behavior cannot be understood apart from the power structures that define and enforce norms. In contrast to etiological theories, Sack’s approach focuses on the reaction to deviance, highlighting how state institutions, such as police and courts, disproportionately affect marginalized populations. His work has had a lasting impact on the critique of punitiveness, selective criminalization, and penal populism.