interactionism and labelling theory

Question 1

What can labelling depend on

Answer 1

Interactionist with agencies of social control

Appearance and background

Situation and circumstances

Question 2

What did piliavin and Briar find out about labelling

Answer 2

They found decisions to arrest depended on physical cues

Question 3

Cicourel

Answer 3

found that officers typifications led to them to concentrate on certain “types”. this resulted in law enforcement showing a class bias in that working class areas an people fitted the police typifications most closely.

Question 4

Typifications

Answer 4

Commended theories of what. Typical delinquent is like e.g we areas, more patrols conforming stereotypes

Question 5

What does statics tell us

Answer 5

About activities of police she prosecutors “decision gates”

Question 6

Dark figure

Answer 6

Crime that goes undetected unreported and unrecorded

Question 7

Alternative statistics

Answer 7

Self report studies

Question 8

Limitations of self report studies

Answer 8

People can lie or exaggerate

Question 9

Lemert(1951)

Answer 9

Distinguishes between primary and secondary deviance.

Question 10

..primary deviance

Answer 10

Refers to deviant acts that have not been publicly labelled. Lemert argues that is pointless to seek the cause of primary deviance is widespread

Question 11

Secondary deviance

Answer 11

the result of societal reaction- that is labelling

Question 12

What happens when a criminal is labelled

Answer 12

The criminal is then stigmatised or excluded from normal society

Question 13

Master status

Answer 13

Once an individual is labelled this is how others see him

Question 14

What does a master status result in

Answer 14

Self fulfilling

Question 15

deviance amplification spiral

Answer 15

Is term labelling theorists use to describe a process in which the attempt to control deviance lead to increase in the level of deviance

Question 16

Cohen’s folk devils and moral panic

Answer 16

A study of societal reaction to “mods and rockers” disturbances involving groups youths it’s at English seaside resorts

Question 17

How was the press begin a moral panic in Cohen’s study on folk devils

Answer 17

Press exaggeration and distorted reporting of the events began a moral panic wiry growing public concern and moral entrepreneurs calling for a crack down

Question 18

Triplett

Answer 18

Noted an increasing tendency to see young offenders as evil and less tolerant of minor deviance

Question 19

Braithwaite

Answer 19

Identifies a moral positive role of labelling process. He distinguishes between two types of shaming

Question 20

Disintegrative shaming

Answer 20

Where not only by crime, but also the criminal, is labelled as bad and the offender is excluded from society

Question 21

Reintegrative shamming

Answer 21

By contrast, labels the act but not the actor as if to say he has done a bad thing rather than he is a bad person

Question 22

Douglas suicide

Answer 22

Official Suicide statistics are socially constructed- decisions of police and coroners

Relatives sometimes feel guilty and press for alternative verdicts

Coroners with strong religious beliefs may be reluctant to bring verdict

Question 23

Suicide Atkinson

Answer 23

Agrees that official statistics are merely a record of the labels coroners attach to deaths. He argues that is it impossible to know for sure what meanings the dead have to their deaths

Found ideas about the “typical suicide”
eg hanging and sleeping pills

Question 24

A03 suicide Atkinson

Answer 24

His own theory can be accused of “just interpretation” and not fact

Question 25

Paranoia lemert

Answer 25

Lemert notes that some individuals don’t fit easily into groups.

As a result of primary deviance labelled as odd and excluded

People discussing the label leads to a reaction of paranoia this leads to a psychiatric invention

The label of the illness becomes their master status

Question 26

Goffman initialisation

Answer 26

On admission inmate undergoes a “mortification of self”

Old identity is killed off and you are given a new one “inmate”

Achieved by “degradation rituals” e.g confiscation of objects

Some internalise this identity, others adopt forms of resistance eg manipulative system

Question 27

Evaluation of the labelling theory

Answer 27

Shows us that the law is not fixed set of rules reinforced in discriminatory ways

Deterministic implies that the deviant career is inevitable

Emphasis on negative effect of labelling gives the offenders a victim status and ignores the real victim