Interactionism and labelling theory

Question 1

Consequences of labelling

Answer 1

1)Primary and secondary deviance
primary deviance :someone breaches social norms but action hasn’t been publicly identified and doesn’t impact there identity
secondary deviance:when they breach social norms and it’s labelled as wrong and impacts there identity and have a negative label-becomes there master status
2)Moral panick
Refers to a disproportionately fearful reaction by the public event which is reported to the news.Media is responsible for fear
3)Naming and shaming
Disintergrative shaming:When the person is labelled as a bad person by the justice system which is shared with the public via media
Reintegrative shaming is when the persons actions are labelled bad rather than the person

Question 2

How are crime and deviance defined

1)How an action is labelled is relative to he social context

Answer 2

Plummer:
-no such thing as a behaviour which is in itself is always deviant
-behaviour may be regarded as inappropriate by someone else
societal deviance:actions which the majority of people would label as wrong as go against society’s norms.
EXAMPLE:crimes against children, domestic abuse
situational deviance:behaviours which may or may not be regarded as deviant depending on social context
1)changes over time-actions in the past classes as deviant might not be today vice versa E.G slavery
2)social situation-actions may be acceptable in some situations but deviant in other situations E.G-normal for someone to be in their house naked but not in public
Newburn:
evaluation:
-useful theory for acknowledging that context can affect how behaviour is defined
-arguably most acts of societal deviance are objectively wrong irrespective of context

Question 3

How are crime and deviance defined

How an action is defined depends on the perpetrator is and how people react to them

Answer 3

Becker:
-action is defined as devient depending on the type of person that carries out the action+how others respond to them
-certain types of people are more likely to have there actions interpreted negatively->more likely to have a negative label and others treat them like their judgment is correct
EXAMPLE:group of teenagers hanging around are more likely to be labelled as up to no good rather than a group of elderly people
-people who negatively labelled may go on to accept this label as correct->leads to self full-filling prophecy
-people accept that others view them as devient so internalise this label
EXAMPLE:teenagers internalise negative label so do devient activities
-can become their master status (main source of identity)
Evaluation:
Becker fails to tell us why certain groups are more likely than others to be labelled as devient
-Fails to tell us why certain individuals have more power than others apply labels to particular groups+behaviours

Question 4

Social construction of official crime statistics

The law is applied selectively

Answer 4

Becker:
-State creates laws to control actions+groups they disapprove off E.G-anti social behaviour, drug offences, theft
-affects appearance of crime stats.Happens because the justice system is more likely to monitor certain groups closer than others->more likely to get caught+punished
-crime data creates an impression certain groups are more likely to break the law
PILIVIAN+BRIAR:
conducted study into police arrest practices
-found police use physical cues on whether to stop and search someone or not E.G-age,gender+clothes
-if they didn’t have characteristics which police associated with deviant behaviour- classed as law abiding citizens
-if they did have characteristics they were statistically more likely to be caught
Evaluation:
-research into selective law enforcement has been useful for challenge issues such as institutional racism within police
-Right realists argue that certain groups get more attention from police because their actions are more problematic not because if labelling

Question 5

Social construction of official crime stats

Dark figure of crime

Answer 5

dark figure (crimes which do not get caught or reported to the police so don’t appear on records)
-official stats are ‘tip of the ice berg’ and the reality of crime is hidden from public view
1)selective law enforcement means some crimes/individuals are ignored E.G-m/c,white collar/corporate crime
EXAMPLE:police are 8 times more likely to search black people than white people
2)Types of crime are less likely to be reported to the police E.G-domestic violence, sexual assault+crimes against children
EXAMPLE-15% of people who experience sexual violence go in to report it only 1.7% get crime convictions
3)some groups have their actions delabelled
-authorities decide to not take case further+not taken seriously E.G white collar crime
-instead taken to civil court or pay compensation
-people such as middle class and white collar crime get away with crime because they have financial means to buy their way out of justice
evaluation:
- may be that middle class crime are too complex+costly to investigate rather than deliberately being ignored by police
-fails to recognise that the police may need to focus on certain crimes/groups as they are more damaging to wider society