interactionism and labelling theory

Question 1

what is top-down macro?

Answer 1

• argue that ideas are shaped by society - society is top-down and individuals are puppets and created by society
• focus on how institutions create and control us
• positivist
• functionalism: behavior is shaped, and controlled by shared norms, beliefs and values
• marxism: social class relations
• feminism: gender relations

Question 2

what is ‘bottoms-up’ micro?

Answer 2

• interactionism focuses on small scale studies
• looks at how individuals make sense of what is going on around them
• individuals develop meanings which influence the way they behave
• interpretivist
• labelling theory

Question 3

BECKER: product of labelling theory

Answer 3

• crime is a product of interactions between suspects and the police/courts
• typically, those with power to the labelling

Question 4

what is the social construction of crime?

Answer 4

• deviance is not the quality of the act the person commits - relates more to who get labelled as a deviant
• society creates rules - deviance is behavior that breaks these rules
• heroin addict / compared to a nurse injecting a patient. same behavior yet a status change.

Question 5

what are moral entrepreneurs (BECKER)

Answer 5

• BECKER sees these as groups who construct deviance
• these lead moral crusades to change laws
• new laws create new groups of outsiders - those who break the laws
• new laws cause the expansion of the social control agencies (police+courts) to enforce these laws and impose labels on offenders

Question 6

PLATT - juvenile delinquents

Answer 6

• PLATT: the term juvenile delinquency was created by victorian middle class moral entrepreneurs aimed at protecting young people at risk
• this established juevniles as a seperate offender with their own courts
• the state expanded its powers to go beyond criminal offences and include status offences
• this means young people became criminals simply because of their age e.g. truancy, sexual promiscuity

Question 7

AARON CICOUREL - participant observation results

Answer 7

• CICIOUREL participent observation whilst working as a juvenile probation officer found that the police held a stereotypical view of a juvenile delinquent
• police used TYPIFICATION: stereotypes of what a typical criminal is like
• usually WC youths which led to intense policing of WC areas
• criminal justic system also reflected this bias
• MC youths generally let off
• these arrests then became crime statistics

Question 8

who gets labelled and arrested?

Answer 8

• not everyone who commits a crime is punished

based on:
- their interactions with agents of social control police and courts
- their appearance and background
- the situation and the offence

Question 9

social construction of crime statistics

Answer 9

• interactionists argue that official stats are social constructions
• based on a process of decisions and negotiations
• outcome depends on the labels attached to individuals
• the dark figure of crime (iceberg effect) nobody knows for certain the true level of crime
• alternative statistics still have limitations

Question 10

ways to measure crime

Answer 10

1. crime statistics: number of convictions
2. victim survey: more valid, but some victims may not be truthful
3. self-report study: more valid but some people could lie/exaggerate

Question 11

the use of crime statistics

Answer 11

• CICOUREL’s study shows crime statistics don’t reveal a valid picture of crime
• sociologists can’t use them as a study resource - not factual
• they tell us more about how the agents of social control operate: who gets arrested/prosecuted

Question 12

EDWIN LEMERT: primary deviance

Answer 12

acts that are not publicly labelled - little significance e.g. drugs, speeding and litter dropping

Question 13

EDWIN LEMERT: secondary deviance

Answer 13

is publicly labelled and relates to public relation

Question 14

EDWIN LEMERT: master status

Answer 14

label successfully applied so all their other qualities are irrelevant

Question 15

JOCK YOUNG: marijuana smokers

Answer 15

• initially, drug taking was peripheral to the hippies lifestyle as outsiders - changed their appearance
• retreated into a closed group - drug taking became central activity - attracting further attention from the police = secondary deviance

Question 16

what is a deviant career?

Answer 16

• people labelled as deviant and find conventional opportunities locked off to them
• they are pushed into further deviance
• deviant career begins when the individual joins an organized deviant group facing similar problems
• institutions such as prisons help make labels stick and contribute to further deviance
• however, people can choose not to deviate further

Question 17

STEPHEN COHEN: mods and rockers

Answer 17

• disturbances on bank holidays in seaside towns
• mass media over exaggerated these reports as ‘hell bent on destruction’
• deviancy amplification spiral
• police made more arrests = the media reported more deviance = more people identified with mods or rocks = further disturbances
• COHEN claimed that the media created a moral panic (law and order campaign) the mods and the rockes became folk devils: somebody who is a bad person

Question 18

deviancy amplication

(+JOCK YOUNG)

Answer 18

• the police + media can generate an increase in deviance
• being labelled deviant causes people to become stigmatized and cut off from mainstream society
• development of subcultures
• JOCK YOUNG’s study of drug use showed that police activity forced them underground and involvement in more criminal behaviour

Question 19

labelling + criminal justice policy

Answer 19

• trying to control and punish young offenders often has the opposite effect
• tends to make society see them as evil and less tolerant of petty crime
• increases offending rates - encourages harsher sentences
• negative labels push offenders to commit more crime
• we need to make fewer laws
• decriminalizing soft drugs - reduce the amount of secondary deviance

Question 20

disintegrative & reintegrative shaming

(BRAITHWAITE)

Answer 20

• most labelling theorists see labelling as having negative effects
• BRAITHWAITE argues it could be positive
• disintegrative shaming: the crime AND the criminal are labelled as negative
• reintegrative: labels the crime AND NOT THE CRIMINAL, this is more positive - avoids secondary deviance

Question 21

EVALUATION of labelling theory

Answer 21

• draws attention to labelling
• shows how labelling can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy
• identifies certain types of people who are most likely to be labelled
• shows the importance of the role social control agencies have when defining what is deviant
• highlights role of moral entrepreneurs like the media in defining / creating deviance through moral panic

Question 22

WEAKNESSES of labelling

Answer 22

• deterministic: once label is attached deviant career is inevitable
• it sees criminals as passive victims of labelling but some choose to be deviant
• criminals know they are breaking the law
• fails to explain the cause of deviant behavior
• labelling does not always create a self-fulfilling prophecy - some criminals never re offend
• it assumes crime and deviance is down to societal reaction - ignores structural factors such as poverty
• it tends to focus on less serious crime
• ignores victims of crime
• implies that without labelling deviance would not exist