Interactionalist Theories

Question 1

Becker

Answer 1

Crime and deviance are socially constructed by moral entrepreneurs-
the powerful groups in society with the ability to influence the law. They lead a campaign to criminalise certain behaviours and acts. Recent examples of moral entrepreneurs changing the law include: smoking with an infant inthe car, prolife versus procoice and the legislation of marijuana campaigns.

Question 2

Cicourel

Answer 2

The police hold certain ‘typifications’ about who they view as criminal based on official statistics. This results in them patrolling lower class areas and they stop and search young, disproportionately BME males, which ends up with these groups being overrepresented in crime stats.

Question 3

Stan Cohen

Answer 3

Mods and Rockers.
The media play a role in exaggerating the behaviours of young people as a result of news values, and these sensational stories cause a moral panic. The continuation of the media to label young people and exaggerate their deviance, young people begin to categorise themselves as this label (deviance amplification).

Question 4

Young

Answer 4

Looked at youth deviancy (through the hippie subculture) as a response to marginalisation by agents of social control, which also led to deviancy amplification. This is because the police alienated the hippies and made them feel cut off from mainstream society and more likely to accept their label as a master status, and a self-fulfilling prophecy occurred.

Question 5

Becker Evaluation

Answer 5

This theory offers an explanation of why crimes change between cultures and throughout time, though ignores crimes that most societies agree are wrong such as murder.

Question 6

Cicourel Evaluation

Answer 6

The fact that BME males are at least 6x more likely to be stop and searched in cities across the UK supports that police stereotyping still occurs today.

Question 7

Stan Cohen Evaluation

Answer 7

Theory does not show why the initial act of deviance between the mods and rockers was committed in the first place.

Question 8

Jock Young Evaluation

Answer 8

Fails to acknowledge that not all youths simply accept their labels.
Although, much research from agencies of education, crime, health etc support how labelling and marginalisation impacts youths