[2.1] The effects of labelling

Question 1

What else are labelling theorists interested in?

Answer 1

The effects of labelling on those who are labelled.

Question 2

What do labelling theorists claim?

Answer 2

They claim that by labelling a person as deviant, society further encourages them to behave this way.

Question 3

What types of deviance does Lemert (1951) distinguish between?

Answer 3

Primary deviance - deviant acts that have not been publicly labelled.
Secondary deviance - deviant acts that happen as a result of societal reaction.

Question 4

Once an individual is labelled, what happens?

Answer 4

Others begin to see him only in terms of the label, and the label becomes his master status.

Question 5

How does the world view labelled deviants?

Answer 5

No longer as fathers, brothers and husbands - but as thieves, junkies and paedophiles.

Question 6

What does labelling create for the individual?

Answer 6

A crisis of self-concept.

Question 7

How can one resolve a crisis of self-concept?

Answer 7

By accepting and living up to their deviant label.

Question 8

What is secondary deviance likely to do?

Answer 8

It is likely to provoke further hostile reactions from society, and reinforce the deviant individual’s ‘outsider’ status.

Question 9

Who did Young (1971) study to demonstrate the concept of secondary deviance?

Answer 9

Hippy marijuana users in Notting Hill, their drug use was peripheral to their lifestyle, and persecution by the police led to the hippies seeing themselves as outsiders.

Question 10

What do Lemert (1951) and Young (1971) demonstrate?

Answer 10

It is not the act which makes something deviant, it is the reaction from society.

Question 11

What do Downes and Rock (2003) point out?

Answer 11

Although a deviant career is a common result of labelling, it is not inevitable.

Question 12

What is the deviance amplification spiral?

Answer 12

A process in which the attempt to control deviance leads to an increase in the level of deviance.

Question 13

What did Cohen’s (1972) study of the mods and rockers show?

Answer 13

It showed exaggerated event reporting, causing growing public concern which caused more arrests which then caused more public concern!

Question 14

What does Triplett (2000) note?

Answer 14

An increasing tendency to see young offenders as evil and to be less tolerant of minor deviance.

Question 15

How has Lemert’s (1951) concept of secondary deviance been shown in the real world?

Answer 15

Harsher sentences have led to the commission of more crime.

Question 16

What important policy implication does labelling theory have?

Answer 16

To reduce deviance, we should make fewer rules so there are fewer chances to break them.

Question 17

What does Braithwaite (1989) distinguish between?

Answer 17

Disintegrative shaming - the crime and criminal are labelled as bad and excluded from society.
Reintegrative shaming - the act, not the actor, is labelled.

Question 18

What does the policy of reintegrative shaming avoid?

Answer 18

It avoids stigmatising the offender as evil, and makes them aware of their behaviour’s negative impact on others.

Question 19

Give three evaluation points of labelling theory.

Answer 19

1. It is deterministic.
2. It emphasises the negative effects of labelling and not the negative effects of crime.
3. Can’t explain why people are deviant even before they are labelled.