2.2.2 Crime and Deviance: Interactionism and labelling theory Flashcards
Mental illness and suicide
How does Lemert see mental illness as a self-fulfilling prophecy?
- Argues that socially awkward people are labelled and excluded from groups.
- The negative response gives reason for to fear their mental health and ‘medical patient’ becomes master status.
Mental illness and suicide
What does Douglas argue about how to find the meaning of suicide?
- To find the meaning of suicide we must use qualitative methods such as suicide notes and interviews with family.
- Official statistics and coroners notes are social constructs which only tell us about labels.
The social construction of crime
What is the marxist evaluation of labelling theory?
Marxists criticise labelling theorists for identifying sterotypes but failing to identify that they come from the unequal structure of a capitalist society.
The social construction of crime
How do labelling theorists view crime statistics?
- Labelling theorists see crime as a topic not a resource
- This is because working class groups are more likely to fit police typifications and so police spend more time in working class areas, leading to disproportionate arrests.
- Cicourel argues that crime statistics cannot be taken at face value or as a resource, but as a topic of investigation.
The social construction of crime
What is Cicourel’s theory of typifications and who is most likely to suffer because of this?
Cicourel argues that the police use typifications of the ‘typical delinquent’ (steroetypes).
Those fitting the typification are more likely to be stopped, arrested and charged.
* Working class and ethnic minority groups are more likely to be arrested, and once arrested more likely to be charged,
* Middle class juvenilesare less likely to fit typification and have parents who can sucessfully negotiate on their behalf so less likely to be arrested and charged.
The social construction of crime
How does Becker view deviance?
- Becker views deviance as a social construct.
- He argues that no act is deviant in itself, but social groups create deviance by creating rules and applying them to particular people who they label as ‘outsiders’.
- Therefore, an act only becomes deviant when labelled by others as deviant.
The effects of labelling
What is some evaluation of labelling?
(2)
- Fails to explain why people commit primary deviance in the first place.
- Accused of being too deterministic - once labelled, SFP is inevitable, although this isn’t always the case.
The effects of labelling
What is Cohen’s study of moral panic?
- Cohen’s study of mods and rockers is an example of moral panic and deviance amplification spiral.
- Media exaggeration created a moral panic
- Moral entrepreneurs called for a ‘crackdown’ and police responded by arresting more youths.
- More panic, youths labelled ‘folk devils’, more deviance.
The effects of labelling
What is a deviance amplification spiral?
In a deviance amplification spiral, the attempts to control deviance leads to it increasing rather than decreasing, resulting in greater attempts to control it, and then more deviance in an escalatng spiral.
The effects of labelling
What is Young’s example of a self fulfilling prophecy?
- Young studied Hippies’ marijuana use and found that initially the drug was peripheral to the hippies’ lifestyle (primary deviance)
- Once the police began to persecute them (societal reaction) they began to retreat into closed groups.
- They developed a deviant subculture where drug use was central (self fulfilling prophecy).
The effects of labelling
How does being labelled lead to more crime?
(sfp)
- Can lead to aself fulfilling prophecywhere someone turns to secondary deviance.
- Society then reinforces the individual’s outsider status , leading to them joining a deviant subculture and adopting a deviant career.
The effects of labelling
What does Lemert argue is the result of labelling?
Lemert argues that by labelling certain people as deviant, society actually encourages them to become more so, causing ‘secondary deviance’.
Lavinia Woodward’s case study
- Female student at oxford stabbed her boyfriend but was only sentenced to 11 months as the courts thought she had a future ahead of her.
