Interactionism And Labelling Theory Flashcards
What do interactionists think of official stats?
Not valid
Social constructs
Dark figure of crime
What is a deviant to Becker?
Someone to whom the label has been successfully applied
What are moral entrepreneurs according to Becker?
People who lead a moral crusade to change the law.
What did Cicourel find?
Officers typifications of what a delinquent is like means they show a class bias in working class areas. This leads to more patrolling in working class areas, confirming their stereotypes. He argued justice is not fixed but negotiable eg when a middle class youth was arrested, he was less likely to be charged because his parents could negotiate on his behalf, saying they would punish him at home.
What is the dark figure of crime?
The difference between the official statistics and the ‘real’ rate of crime
What does Lemert distinguish between?
Primary deviance- deviant acts that have not been public ally labelled
Secondary deviance- label of a deviant is applied. Societal reaction. Stigmatisation and exclusion by public
What is a master status?
Once someone is labelled a deviant, others may come to see him only in terms of the label. This becomes their master status, in the eyes of the world they are now just a criminal.
This provokes an identity crisis for the individual. To resolve this they accept the label and see themselves as the world sees them. Self fulfilling prophecy. This results from secondary deviance
This may lead them to a deviant career because they cannot get a job as an outsider
What did Jock Young find in his study?
Marijuana users in Notting Hill. Persecution and labelling by the police to the hippies led them to see themselves as outsiders. They retreated and became a deviant subculture, drug use becoming central and fulfilling their prophecy
What is the deviance amplification spiral?
Term labelling theorists use. Attempt to control deviance increases deviance. This is applied to Stanley Cohen’s folk devils and moral panics, mods and rockers. Press exaggeration caused a moral panic, moral entrepreneurs calling for a crackdown. More youths arrested.
Demonising mods and rockers as folk devils causes marginalisation and more deviance
Give an example of negative labelling causing a deviant career?
By decriminalising soft drugs the number of criminal convictions will drop and they will not experience secondary deviance which pushes them to be more deviant and take more drugs
What is disintegrative shaming?
Where not only the crime, but also the criminal, is labelled as bad and the offender is excluded from society
What is reintegrative shaming?
Labels the act but not the actor- he has done a bad thing not he is bad. This avoids pushing them into secondary deviance
How is the labelling theory evaluated?
Deterministic, implying once labelled a deviant career is inevitable
Gives the offender a victim status and forgets the real victims
Focuses on less serious crime like drugs
Assumes offenders are passive victims
Doesn’t explain why people are deviant in the first place
