Explanation of crime and ASB: Social explanation Flashcards
What are the 3 key aspects of the social explanation
Labelling
Self Fulfilling prophecy
Social Learning
Labelling theory
Describe labelling theory
How we classify ourselfs and others, If a person is labeled as a criminal it will define them as a person and affect how society views them
Labelling theory
How did becker argue powerful groups create devience
Making up rules and applying them to people they see as ‘outsiders’
- so what counts as criminal behaviour only becomes so when labelled by others
Self-Fulfilling prophecy
Describe self-fulfilling prophecy theory
Takes the idea of labelling and applies to to ourselfs
When others label you, ‘lazy’ for example you internalise this, people influence preception of themselfs by their labels
Self-Fulfilling prophecy
Criminal example
people labeled as criminals by society see themselfs this way because of stereotypical attitudes towards them, making deviant behaviour more likely
Social learning
How does observational learning describe criminal behaviour
Deviant behaviour is learnt through observing other deviant behaviour. Observer must pay attention and have the skills to reproduce the behaviour, aswell as motivation
Social learning
How does vicarious reinforcement link to motivation of criminal behaviour in observational learning
If observer sees criminal being rewarded, with things like money, behaviour is more likely to be imitated
Social learning
How do role model link to criminal behaviour
Young offenders are susceptible to influece of role models.
Young offenders may identify with gang leaders and want to be, and have a lifestyle, like them
Research evidence
Supporting research evidence
Study in Ghana:
Boys named after day they were born, monday boys thought to be well tempered while wednesday boys seen as aggressive and volatile
Research evidence
Reseach evidence findings
Wednesday boys were 3 times more likely to be involved in violent crime than monday boys over a 5 year period
Competing arguement to research evidence
1998 study showed people described as ‘babyfaced’ were more likely to be involved in crime than their mature faced counterparts.
suggested babyfaced boys were overcompensating for perception they may be ‘weak’. Rather than living up to label of ‘innocent’
Weakness of social explanation
Implies that without labelling, crime wouldnt exist. Suggests someone who has commited an offence but hasn’t been labelled is not a criminal.
Someone who’s comitted murder is a criminal, whether they have been labeled or not
Weakness of social explanation
What does this suggest about the theory
Theory is too simplistic to be a stand-alone explanation
Weakness of research
What is a weakness of research in the social explanation
Most research in labelling is done with a student teacher relationship done in educational settings
Weakness of research
Explain this weakness of lack of research evidence in relation to crime
Difficult to replicate these studies at a societal level in relation to labelling and crime, because their are too many factors that affect the relationship
