Becker: Interactionism and Labelling - Crime and Deviance (Functionalist)

Question 1

What does Becker explore?

Answer 1

The interaction between the person who commits an act and those who react to it.

and

how people develop deviant careers over time.

Question 2

What does Becker argue?

Answer 2

• Deviance is created by society. Social groups create deviance by making rules, applying these rules to particular people and labelling them as ‘outsiders’.
• Whether or not a particular act is seen as deviant depends on how others react to it. This varies according to when and where the act takes place, who commits the act and who feels harmed by it.
• Some groups have the power to make rules and apply them to others. Power is related to age, gender, ethnicity and class. For instance, adults make important rules for young people, such as those regarding school attendance.
• That labelling may produce a self-fulfilling prophecy - the person may come to fit the image people have for them.

Question 3

Becker’s exploration on how people develop deviant careers over time.

Answer 3

• For example, a young woman uses illegal drugs, is caught and labelled a deviant. This label changes how others see her - she is now ‘the local junkie’
• This new status becomes a master status and overrides her status as a daughter or employee. Her parents reject her: she loses her home, her friends and her job.
• She resorts to criminal and deviant activities such as shoplifting to support her habit.
• Finally, she moves into a group wit a deviant sub-culture. The young woman now identifies with this deviant group and sees herself as one of them.

Question 4

What are some criticisms of Becker?

Answer 4

• Interactionism does not explain why individuals deviate in the first place.
• Interactionism sees criminals as victims of labelling rather than as people who choose to commit crime.
• Structural approaches argue that interactionism overlooks the influence of the social structure on behaviour. Marxists, for example, argue that interactionism does not focus enough on power inequalities between social classes.