Crime And Deviance - Interactionist Perspective: Labelling Theory

Question 1

Overall, what does labelling theory suggest about crime & deviance?

Answer 1

• Suggests many people involve themselves in some deviant/illegal behaviour -> hard to sustain distinction between deviants & non-deviants
• Attempts to find causes of crime -> pointless
• Official crime stats regarded as social constructions -> shows unrepresentative group of offenders who have been caught & publicly labelled as criminals (stereotypes & explanations that police & other social agencies believe give rise to crime)
• Seeks to explain why only some acts & people are defined as criminal/deviant while others aren’t

Question 2

What does labelling theory focus on, regarding crime & deviance?

Answer 2

• The interaction between deviants & those who define them as deviant + why particular individuals & groups labelled as deviant
• The process where rules are selectively enforced -> why the response to rule breaking isnt the same, what assumptions by police when they chose whether/not to take action
• Consequences of being labelled ‘deviant’ -> societal reaction, the effect of the label on the self-concept (prevent further deviance, self-fulfilling prophecy)
• Circumstances which person becomes set apart & defined deviant
• Analysis of who has the power to attach deviant labels & make them ‘stick’

Question 3

SOCIOLOGIST: What does Becker say about deviant acts & agencies of socialisation regarding crime & deviance?

Answer 3

Suggests acts only becomes deviant when others perceive & define it as such, whether/not deviant label applied depends on societal reaction

Agencies e.g. the media (have power & resources to create/enforce rules & impose definition of deviance) are moral entrepreneurs

Question 4

What are moral entrepreneurs?

Answer 4

A person/group/organisation with power to create/enforce rules & impose definitions of deviance

Question 5

What does labelling theory say about selective law enforcement?

Answer 5

Agencies of social control -> use selective judgement in deciding whether & how to deal with illegal/deviant behaviour e.g. police cant prosecute all crime, requires heavy policing (massive drain on resources) -> criminal labels not attached to every law breach -> labelling theorists suggest its necessary to study how&whom deviant labels are attached

Question 6

SOCIOLOGIST: What does Becker say about selective law enforcement?

Answer 6

police operate with pre-existing conceptions & stereotypical categories -> influence their responses to behaviour they come across

Question 7

SOCIOLOGIST: What does Becker say the categories are which the police operate on & what influences their response to deviant behaviour?

Answer 7

What constitutes as trouble
Criminal types & areas
What action taken depends not so much on actual offences/behaviour -> stereotypes of groups/offences

Question 8

SOCIOLOGIST: What does Cicourel say about crime & deviance?

Answer 8

• Uses phenological approach -> understand how law enforcers make sense & interpret what they see
• Suggests subjective perceptions & stereotypes can affect whether criminal labels attached -> how they lead to social construction of crime stats
• Study of juvenile delinquency (US) -> found juvenile crime rates consistently higher in w.class areas than middle class -> because police viewed behaviour between 2 differently even when engaged in the same behaviour
• Argued because police perceived middle-class to have good backgrounds -> behaviour interpreted as temporary lapses
• Opposite perception held of w.class youth -> formal action take
• Research suggests we need to look at choices made by police when they patrol -> who they regard with suspicion, who they choose to stop & search, arrest & charge

Question 9

SOCIOLOGIST: What are the 2 types of deviance, proposed by Lemert?

Answer 9

Primary
Secondary

Question 10

What is primary deviance & give an example?

Answer 10

Deviance that is not publicly labelled as such e.g. people not following traffic laws (few consequences for the person so long no one knows)

Question 11

What is secondary deviance & give an example?

Answer 11

Deviance that follows a person once they’ve been publicly labelled as deviant e.g. person is caught with pornography -> stigma

Question 12

SOCIOLOGIST: What does Becker say about the labelling process?

Answer 12

Attachment of label has major consequences for individual’s self-concept & future actions:
o The deviant label can become their master status e.g. downloading child porn, other identities e.g. dad may be overrided by ‘paedophile’ which is seen as the defining status
o Others may respond to this master status & assume they have all the negative attributes of it -> the beginning of 2nd deviance
o Sustaining an alternative image in the deviant’s own eyes & others becomes difficult when the master status is applied

Question 13

What is a master status?

Answer 13

One which overrides all other characteristics which the individual may possess e.g. ‘paedophile’ over ‘dad’

Question 14

SOCIOLOGIST: What does Becker say about deviant careers & the self-fulfilling prophecy?

Answer 14

Suggests labelling process & societal reaction can lead to self-fulfilling prophecy & deviant career (when deviants have faced rejection and become ‘outsiders’ so continue to act even more in the way which they’ve been labelled)
- Institutions e.g. prison further help the label stick -> after leaving labels still applied e.g. ex-con -> leads to further deviance (alternative legitimate opportunities + lack of means close off)
- Deviant career begins when individual eventually joins/identifies with deviant group facing similar problems (provides support & understanding for deviant identity) -> generates further deviance
- suggests societal reaction & application of deviant label produces more deviance than it prevents

Question 15

SOCIOLOGIST: How does Cohen’s work on deviancy amplification & moral panic reinforce Becker’s viewpoint?

Answer 15

labelling by media generated more deviance then it condemned

Question 16

SOCIOLOGIST: How does Cohen’s work on deviancy amplification & moral panic reinforce Becker’s viewpoint?

Answer 16

labelling by media generated more deviance then it condemned

Question 17

SOCIOLOGIST & EVALUATION: What does Plummer say about labelling theory?

Answer 17

It has been influential & it’s embedded in vast range of contemporary sociology -> e.g. moral panic & dramatisation of crime in the media

Question 18

EVALUATION: What are the strengths on labelling theory, regarding crime & deviance?

Answer 18

o Provides insights into nature of deviance (not provided by structural theorists)
o Challenges idea deviants are different than ‘normal’ people
o Shows importance of reaction of others in defining & creating deviance
o Reveals importance of stereotyping in understanding deviance
o Reveals the way official crime stats are product of bias in law enforcement
o Reveals importance of those with power in defining acts & people as deviant
o Highlights role of moral entrepreneurs (e.g. media) in defining & creating deviance & moral panics
o Shows how labelling can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies & deviant careers
o Shows how deviant label can affect self-concept of the deviant

Question 19

EVALUATION: What are the criticisms on labelling theory, regarding crime & deviance?

Answer 19

• Tends to remove blame for deviance away from the deviant & onto the definer
• Assumes act isnt deviant until it is labelled -> many know what they’re doing is deviant
• Doesn’t explain causes of deviant behaviour which proceed labelling process/different kinds of acts they commit e.g. drugs & murder
• Doesn’t explain why there’s different reactions to deviance/where stereotypes come from in the 1st place
• Ignores importance of wider societal structures in creating deviance -> assumes all down to societal reaction
• Little to say about victims of crime
• No real policy solutions to crime except ‘not naming & shaming’ offenders -> not much consolation for victims
• Doesn’t explain why some individuals are labelled rather than others & why some acts are against the law & some arent -> points to issue of power in labelling process, but not in the way Marxists have

Question 20

EVALUATION: How can labelling theory be seen as deterministic?

Answer 20

o Doesn’t allow some choose deviance & attachment of deviant label & identity (e.g, those in the past who adopted gay identity -> not simply imposed by societal reaction)
o Labelling doesn’t always lead to self-fulfilling prophecy & more deviance -> attachment of deviant label & stigma may reduce rather than increase deviance