Ch 13 Flashcards
interactionist theory
centred on interchanges between people and the meanings of these interchanges
three basic premises:
-ppl act according to objects in their lives and the meaning these objects hold
-meanings emerge from interactions among ppl
-meanings applied and constantly modified
deviant career
stages of personal involvement in criminal activity
- influenced by contingency and turning points encountered at each stage (ex. youth crime career may be prolonged by early delinquency, drug use, lack of job)
- sense of continuity
- perception of increasing opportunities
- increased sophistication possibly recognition by peers
primary deviation (1972)
early in the career, the offender commits deviant acts infrequently but does not self-identify as a deviant
secondary deviation
deviance becomes a way of life
- individual has an (innate of acquired) affinity for the intended deviant act
- occurs when deviants see behaviour has substantially modified their way of living
- accusations of deviance most influential factor behind redefinition (being labelled and sanctioned for behaviour forces deviant to change their lifestyle)
- indv may become part of a deviant group; learn to cope w deviance problems, acquire rationalizations, makes being deviant easier (note full-fledged deviant not always members of groups)
moral rhetorics
- claims and assertions are used to justify one’s deviant behaviour
- used to neutralize stigma (personal characteristic negatively valued by other) with deviance
- later young offenders use instrumental rhetoric to justify their acts
agents of social control
those involved in maintaining law and order (police, judges, other CJS members, some ordinary citizens)
moral entrepreneurs
individuals who define or advocate new rules and laws or the different enforcement of existing laws
- construct “claim-making activities” to convince ppl a threat exists
- assert existence of situation involving human activity as cause; define it as undesirable but amenable to correction
- stimulate public scrutiny of the situation
- certain ethnic groups targeted by moral entrepreneurs
career contingency
(secondary deviation)
- unintended event/situation that can affect mvmt of and indv along a deviant career
- ex interaction with agent(s) of social control
continuance commitment
(secondary deviation)
-awareness of impossibility of choosing non-criminal identity bc of penalties (societal reactions) in making the switch
ex being unable to get (good) job, police harassment
penalties:
structural (flow from social structure/community)
personal (flow from person’s attitude, sense of self)
reactions to commitment
self-enhancing: some attached to deviant activities; enjoy what they do, are not motivated to leave lifestyle
self-degrading: some redefine values and penalties associated w their identity, become attached to them
differential association
(Sutherland)
- ppl learn how to engage in crime
- learning comes about through interaction with others who have already learned criminal ways
- learning occurs in small face-to-face groups
- criminal technique, motives, attitudes, rationalizations learned
- among criminals, one important learned attitude is disregard for community’s legal code
- attitude acquired by associating with those hold it (and not those who don’t)
- diff associations w criminals + non-criminals vary in frequency, duration, priority, intensity
- criminal behaviour learned through same principles as any other behaviour
- criminal behaviour responds to same cultural needs/values and non-criminal
differential association: strengths and contributions
- points out importance of learning criminal behaviour,, motives, attitudes, techniques
- highlights importance of ties to deviant peers (major risk factor for crim behaviour)
differential association: critiques
-deviant motives, meanings often gradually learned, tentatively applied, modified over time via interactions w both deviants and non-deviants
-expressive reasons for crime (thrill, enjoyment) ignored
key concepts hard to operationalize
criminal identity
social category into which deviants place themselves or are placed
-label often furthers indv criminality
labelling theory: critiques
fails to relate crime/deviance to larger society, doesn’t account for historical, political, economic contexts
- fails to examine societal division btw powerful and powerless
- ignores non-labelled deviants
- lacks testable hypotheses
- does not examine how the labels are created
