interactionism and labelling theory Flashcards
1
Q
What do interactionalists believe ?
A
- Challenge the fact that crime and deviance are social facts which are measurable
- Whether or not an action comes to be defined or labelled as a crime depends on the social context in which the behaviour took place
2
Q
How crime and deviance are defined
A
- How an action is labelled is relative to the social context
- How an action is defined depends on who the perpetrator is and how people react to them
3
Q
Relativity of crime and deviance
A
- Plummer
- There is no such thing as an act which is always objectively deviant (goes against socially acceptable standards
- There are two types of deviance :
1. Societal deviance = actions viewed as by most as wrong eg racism, extreme violence and sexual offences
2. Actions that may or may not be defined as wrong depending on context eg Time (Child labour and same sex relationships), Social setting (drinking and taking a life) and country (Age of consent and same sex relationships)
4
Q
Evaluation of relativity of crime and deviance
A
- Positive : Useful for acknowledging that social context can affect how behaviour is defined
- Negative : Arguably most acts of societal deviance are objectively wrong irrespective of context
5
Q
Some individuals are more likely to be negatively labelled
A
- Becker
- eg WC, appearance, ethnic minorities, underclass and young people
- Such individuals are prone to SFP (they live up to the label that they have been given eg that of a deviant person)
- Their crimes then become their master status (others see them as a criminal as well and this becomes their main source of identity)
- Moral entrepreneurs (high profile authority figures eg religious leaders and politicians etc) influence perceptions of deviance
6
Q
Evaluation of some individuals being more likely to be negatively labelled
A
- fails to tell us why some groups are more likely than others to be labelled as deviant
- Fails to tell us why certain individuals have more power than others to apply labels to particular groups and behaviours
7
Q
The social construction of official crime statistics : Issues and definition
A
- The process of labelling can go on to shape the outlook of the official crime data as certain people are more likely to be stopped and presumed to be wrongdoing
1. The law is applied selectively
2. The dark figure of crime
8
Q
Evaluation of selective law enforcement
A
- Positive : research has been useful for challenging issues such as institutional racism
- Negative : Right realists argue that certain groups get more attention from their police as their actions are more problematical
9
Q
Evaluation of the Dark figure of crime
A
- It may be because middle class crimes are too complex and costly to investigate rather than that they are deliberately ignored by the police
- Fails to recognise that the police may need to focus more on crimes and certain groups as they are more damaging to society
10
Q
The consequences of labelling (theories)
A
- Has a huge impact on the individual, their behaviours and how others view them
1. Primary and secondary deviance
2. Moral panics and deviance amplification
3. labelling, naming and shaming
11
Q
The dark figure of crime
A
- Official crime statistics are merely the tip of the iceberg (the majority of crimes are unreported and unseen)
- Selective law enforcement means that some crimes or individuals are ignored eg middle class people and middle class crimes eg tax evasion and fraud etc
- Some crimes are also less likely to be reported eg domestic abuse, sexual assault and scams due to the nature of them impacting the vulnerable
- Some individuals also have their actions delabelled (pushed through the civil courts rather than criminal courts so their crimes aren’t recorded)
12
Q
Selective law enforcement (Three theories included)
A
- Becker :
- The state creates laws to control actions that they disprove of eg drugs, immigration and anti-social behaviour
- This effects the outlook of official crime statistics as groups who get more attention appear more on the data
- Pilivin and Briar (police officer cues)
- Officers use physical cues when deciding whether to stop someone eg skin colour
- If someone didn’t have the characteristics associated with deviance then they wouldn’t be stopped
- If certain types of people were stopped more then statistically they would be more likely to get caught
- Typification and negotiation of Justice (Cicourel)
- Juvenile delinquency
- Differences based on socioeconomic differences
- Police applied typifications (Held a view of what a typical young offender was like)
- MC presumed to have made an out of character mistake but WC seen as deliberate (presumed from broken homes) + more likely to be charged with an offence and sentence
- Youth crime data suggests WC commit more crime
13
Q
Primary and secondary deviance
A
- Lembert
- Primary deviance = not publicly identified and no effect on the persons identity
- Secondary deviance = deviance which has been caught and impacts you as a person
It then becomes your master status (main source of your identity) and the deviant person has to pursue a deviant career (driven to further deviance) due to their master status meaning they are unable to access a legitimate career
14
Q
Evaluation of primary and secondary deviance
A
- Fails to consider the impact primary deviance has on its victims
- Appears to give offenders a victim status by suggesting being labelled as deviant puts them at a disadvantage in the future
- Primary deviance can cause guilt and have an effect
15
Q
Moral panic and deviance amplification
A
- Looks at the influence the media has on labelling (can cause certain group’s behaviours to be nationally pictured)
- Cohen : looked at the mods and rockers
1964 there was a fight but the media created a media panic in the population - The general public experiences a disproportionately fearful reaction to whatever the issues is that the media reported on
- This leads to amplification and more people are attracted to the deviant group
