Deviance Amplification Spiral

Question 1

What is the deviance amplification spiral?

Answer 1

A process in which the attempt to control deviance leads to an increase in the level of deviance.

Question 2

What does deviance lead to?

Answer 2

Greater attempts to control it, which produces higher levels of deviance.

Question 3

What does more control produce?

Answer 3

More deviance.

Question 4

Cohen’s study of Folk Devils and Moral Panics

Answer 4

Press exaggeration and distorted reporting of the events of the ‘mods and rockers’ began a moral panic, with growing public concern and with moral entrepreneurs calling for a ‘crackdown’. The police responded by arresting more youths, while the courts imposed harsher penalties. This seemed to confirm the truth of the original media reaction and provoked more public concern, in an upward spiral of deviance amplification

Question 5

What is the deviant amplification spiral similar to?

Answer 5

Lemert’s idea of secondary deviance as the societal reaction to the initial deviant act leads to further deviance, which in turn leads to a greater reaction and so on.

Question 6

What is a disadvantage of labelling theory?

Answer 6

It implies that without labelling, deviance would not exist. This leads to the strange conclusion that someone who commits a crime but it not labelled has not deviated. It also implies that deviants are unaware that they are deviant until labelled. Yet most are well aware that they are going against social norms.