Constructionist Theories of Crime

Question 1

Labelling/Social Reaction perspectives

Answer 1

Unlike other sociological theories, the labelling/social reaction perspectives reject using the offender as the starting point in their analysis

Question 2

The rise and fall of labelling theory

Answer 2

1. Asked why certain behaviours were labelled crimes and others were not and how definitions change over time
2. Asked why everyone who broke the law was not detected and designated criminals
3. Asked what the consequences of being labelled were

Question 3

Crime and labelling theory

Answer 3

Crime is not a behaviour, but how we respond to behaviour

Question 4

Emily Murphy

Answer 4

Advocated the need to change Canadian narcotics laws in her 1922 book, The black candle

Contributed to the criminalization of marijuana in 1923

Understood the influence of the media in the drug debate

Question 5

The rise and fall of labelling theory

Answer 5

Drawing on the sociological theory of symbolic interactionism, labelling theorists argue a person’s identity is shaped by the messages other people deliver as to who the person is

Labelling also shapes a person’s social relationships

Question 6

Creating Criminals

Answer 6

Early criminologists recognize that placing people in prison or “houses of corruption”, could deepen involvement in crime

Tannenbaum discussed the “dramatization of evil”

Tannenbaum argued being arrested and labelled as a criminal forced the person to

Tannenbaum argued the best policy in dealing with juvenile delinquents is to not dramatize or draw attention to the crime

Question 7

Primary Deviance

Answer 7

Primary deviance occurs for a wide range of reasons, some individuals and some situations (a 14-year-old smoking weed he got from a friend)

Rationalized and death as functions of a socially acceptable role

Question 8

Secondary Deviance

Answer 8

Occurs when the individual no longer dissociates from his or her deviation

Key factors in prompting a person’s life to coalesce around deviance is the reactions of others

Question 9

The ride and fall of labelling theory

Answer 9

Labelling theory grew in popularity as the 1960s progressed

However, the labelling theory soon fell out of favour

Question 10

Applying theory to scholarship

Answer 10

Chambliss Saints and Roughnecks
- Ethnographic study of two groups of high school boys
A similar amount of wayward behaviour is labelled differently
- Saints not labelled criminal and escaped a life of crime
- Roughnecks are labelled criminals and do not often continue the criminal trajectory

Question 11

Saints

Answer 11

Upper-middle-class white boys
None arrested during the study were seen as less serious
Drink heavily, get high, pranks
Most successful in conventional society

Question 12

Roughnecks

Answer 12

Lower-class white boys
Constantly in trouble, labelled as gang members
Drinking was limited to gang members, left common more visible to home communities
Some were successful; others were involved in crime
Delinquent identity internalized