Chapter 13 Flashcards
Deviant careerkcareerk
The passage of an individual through the stages of one or more related deviant identities
Labelling theory
How the social response to initial acts of deviance can move a person toward a deviant identity and career
Differential association theory
How people learn to be criminals through interaction with other criminals and how they acquire a criminal identity
Interactionist theory in criminology
- Centred on interchanges between people and the meanings of these interchanges
- Based on broader symbolic interactionism theory
Three premises of symbolic interactionism
- People act according to objects in their lives and the meanings those objects have for them
- These meaning emerge from interactions among people
- Meanings are applied and occasionally modified
Why is labelling not accurate or fair?
- some deviants escape public attention
- some have not deviated but are labelled as such
- the label may be subject to negotiation between possibly deviant people and those who label them
interactionist theory helps explain (3)
- the establishment of moral rules
- their application through labelling
- the long-term consequences of these processes for deviants and for society
deviant careers are influenced by…
contingencies and turning points, for example early delinquency, drug use, no job
deviant careers are characterized by (3)
- a sense of continuity
- perception of increasing opportunities
- increased sophistication and possibly recognization by peers
primary deviation
early in the career, the offender commits acts infrequently
secondary deviation
deviance becomes a way of life, the individual has an affinity (innate or required) for the intended deviant act
who drifts and a why?
young people, have little commitment to deviance
Moral rhetorics
Claims and assertions used to justify ones deviant behaviour
- used to neutralize the stigma
- later bec1omes instrumental rhetoric
How do moral entrepreneurs construct “claim/making activities” to convince people a threat exists?
- Assert the existence of a situation involving human activity as a cause
- Define it as an undesirable but amenable to correction
- Stimulate public scrutiny of the situation
Quasi theories
Not based on empirical evidence and often overly simplistic
Master status
Secondary deviation, due to labelling
Continuance commitment
Awareness of the impossibility to choose a non-criminal identity because of penalties in making the switch
- structural (from community)
- personal (from attitudes or sense of self)
Reactions to commitment (2)
- Self-enhancing (attached to lifestyle, not motivated to leave)
- Self-degrading (redefine the values and penalties associated with the lifestyle and become attached to them)
Two areas of intersctionist theories can be seen in the context of socialization into crime
- The process of differential association
2. Acquisition of criminal identity
Differential association theory (1-5)
- People learn how to engage in crime
- This learning comes about through interaction with others who have already learned criminal ways
- This learning occurs in small face to face groups
- What is learning is criminal technique, motives, attitudes and rationalization
- Among criminals l, one important learned attitude is disregard for the community’s legal code
Differential association theory (6-9)
- One acquires this attitude by associating with those who hold it and not associating with those who don’t
- Differential association with criminals and non-criminals vary in frequency, duration, priority and intensity
- Learning criminal behaviour rests on the same principles as learning any other kind of behaviour
- Criminal behaviour is a response to the same cultural needs and values as non/criminal behaviour
Strengths of differential association theory
- points out the importance of learning criminal behaviour, motives, attitudes and techniques
- highlights the importance of ties to deviant peers
Critiques of differential association theory
- Deviant motives and meanings are often gradually learned and tentatively applied and modified over time in interactions with both deviants and non-deviants
- Expressive reasons for committing crime (thrill and enjoyment) are ignored
- Key concepts are hard to operationalize
- -Such as the intensity and frequency of criminal associations
Two sides to the process of labelling
- It is based on a variety of criteria (e.g., appearance, actions, associates, location)
- Community identification of people tends to be highly persuasive, even for deviants themselves
Neo-Marxist Critique
- Fails to relate crime and other forms of deviance to the larger society
- Does not take into consideration historical, political, and economic contexts
- Labelling theory fails to examine the division between powerful and powerless in society
- It does not link power to concepts such as labelling, deviant career, and agents of social control
The empiricist critique
- ignores non-labelled deviants
- labelling as a cause of deviance is inadequately conceptualized
- lacks testable hypothesis
The ethno-methodological critique
- Labelling theory neglects the question: “How do people make sense of their social world?”
- Labelling theorists do not examine how labels are created
Instead, they rely on official definitions of who is labelled
implications
- Exposes the moral enterprise involved in deviance
- Highlights the damaging effects of the deviant label
- Makes re-entry into the community problematic
- Deviant label is esp. damaging when applied to youth
- Juvenile courts should be used for only serious cases
- Calls attention to the deviant career as a process that helps explain deviance beyond its initial causes
- People should have opportunities to build strong side bets in “respectable” pursuits
