Impacts of Labelling

Question 1

What does Cicourel argue about class bias?

Answer 1

Officer’s typifications led them to concentrate on certain demographics e.g. class bias which resulted in them petrolling and therefore catching more WC people commiting crime

Probation officers believed that delinquency was caused by broken homes and poverty and saw people from this background as more likely to offend

Question 2

(Cicourcel) how is justice negotiable?

Answer 2

When MC youth are arrested, they are less likely to be charged because they do not fit the police’s typifications about criminals

This means they are more able to convince authorities that they are sorry so they are more likely to be warned than prosecuted.

Question 3

(Lemert) what is the difference between primary and secondary deviance?

Answer 3

Primary: deviant acts that have not been publically labelled. Pointless to seek the causes of this because it is unlikely to have a single cause. Can easily be explained away as a moment of madness

Secondary: the result of labelling e.g. being labelled as a criminal can result in people being stigmatised. They are only seen in terms of this label and it becomes their master status resulting in a self fulfilling prophecy

Question 4

What did Cohen find?

Answer 4

Press exaggeration of a group of youths causing disturbances began a moral panic. This caused a crackdown resulting in more arrests and harsher sentences for youth (deviance amplification spiral)

Being ‘folk devils’ caused them to be marginalised which resulted in more deviant behaviour

Question 5

(Braithwaithe) what are the 2 types of shaming?

Answer 5

1. Disintergrative: both the crime and the criminal are labelled negatively which causes secondary deviance
2. Reintegrative: avoids stigmatising the offender but negatively labels the crime, making it easier for the offender to reintegrate back into society