Interactionism And Labelling Theory (crime) Flashcards
What do labelling theorists see crime and deviance as ?
A social construct
Whether an act is seen as deviant or not depends on what 4 factors?
-culture
-place
-social situation / context
-time (of day: point in history)
Which interactionist sociologist argues that deviance is a relative and not absolute concept?
BECKER 1963
What does social construction mean?
Where society defines expectations. Not a fixed, naturally occurring phenomenon, created by society and changes across cultures / over time
What example does Becker give of deviance as a social construction
NUDITY
What name does Becker give to the people who lead a moral crusade to change law.
MORAL ENTREPRENEURS
The new laws created my moral entrepreneurs have what 2 effects?
1- creates a new group of outsiders/deviants
2- creates/expands a social control agency to enforce the law and labels
Explain Platt’s Victorian example of moral entrepreneurs
-the concept of juvenile delinquency developed as a response to Victorian moral entrepreneurs who worried about vulnerable youths
-concerned for the number of children who were falling foul of the law, they fought to have children treated differently by courts
-this developed into a label of juvenile offenders —> juvenile courts
Name the case for a more recent example of moral entrepreneurs in the UK that we studied
SARAH’S LAW - 2011
What event caused Sarah’s Law? Summarise the story.
2001- Roy Whiting, a convicted sex offender, abducted 8 year old Sarah Payn from a local field and murdered her. Roy did not know the Payn family, but lived in the area.
Who were the moral entrepreneurs in the case of Sarahs law?
Michael + Sara Payn, the parents of the victim
Summarise Sarahs law 2011
It allows an individual to ask the police to check if a person who had contact with a child, and seems suspicious, posed any risk to the child. If the police believe there is a need to check, they will look at the criminal history and inform the parent of any convictions.
Becker argues that it is not just the harmfulness of certain behaviours that lead to new laws being created, but rather ________________________
The efforts of powerful individuals/groups to redefine behaviour as unacceptable for their own benefit
identify the 3 factors that help determine whether a person is arrested, charged and convicted
-their interactions with agencies of social control
-their appearance, background + personal biography
-their situation + circumstances of the offence
Sociologists Piliavin and Briar found that police decisions to arrest a youth were mainly based on physical cues such as?
-manner
-clothing
-gender
-class
-ethnicity
-the time and place they were stopped
Which case study can be used to support evidence of labelling in crime and deviance ? Name it
CICOUREL : THE NEGOTIATION OF JUSTICE 1968
Summarise Cicourel’s Negotation of Justice case study.
-found that officers typifications led them to concentrate on certain ‘types’ when enforcing the law.
-this resulted in law enforcement showing class bias- working class people fit their stereotypes more
-this led to police patrolling working class areas more intensely, leading to more arrests, and a stronger stereotype.
-also assumed juvenile delinquents more likely to re offend so gave custodial sentences to them
What did Cicourel’s case study lead him to conclude about labelling within crime and deviance?
Justice is not fixed but negotiable - individuals who do not fit the stereotypes are more successful at negotiating with control agencies and therefore do not receive convictions
What view do interactionists take on crime statistics?
They believe they are also socially constructed
At each stage of the criminal justice system agents of social control make what decision?
Whether to proceed with the criminal to the next stage?
The outcome of decision gates depends on what?
The label they agents of social control attach to the individual during their interactions.
What do interactionists believe the crime statistics produced by the criminal justice system tell us?
They only tell us about the activities of the police and prosecutors, rather than the amount of crime in society. The stats are an account of the decisions that have been made at decision gates
Name the decision gates in the criminal justice system
-suspect stopped by police
-arrested
-charged
-prosecuted
-convicted
-sentenced
What does the ‘dark figure’ of crime refer to?
Refers to all the crimes that go undetected, unreported and unrecorded. It includes individuals who are ‘lost’ at each decision gate and are not fully processed by the Criminal Justice system
Identify the 5 steps of the labelling process
1) label attached
2) predictions made based on label
3) people treat them in accordance with the label
4) individual internalises the label + acts in accordance with
5) predictions come true - self fulfilling prophecy
What do labelling theorists claim that labelling someone as criminal / deviant encourages?
Encouraged them to become more deviant
What two concepts does sociologist LEMERT use to demonstrate the effects of labelling?
Primary deviance + secondary deviance
What is primary deviance?
Refers to deviant acts that have not been publicly labelled.
What is secondary deviance?
Deviance that is the result of a societal reaction (to labelling). The label becomes the individual’s master status and provokes a crisis for the individual’s sense of identity
How does Young’s 1971 study into Marijuana users in Notting Hill back up the concepts of primary / secondary deviance? Explain it
Young found that initially, drugs were only peripheral (a small part) of the hippies’ lifestyle (primary deviance).
However, persecution + labelling by the police led the hippies to see themselves as outsiders. The deviant subculture then led to drug use becoming a central activity for hippies
What do sociologists Downed and Rock (2003) point out regarding the effects of labelling?
We cannot predict whether someone who has been labelled will follow a deviant career, because they are always free to choose not to deviate further
Deviance amplification is a term that labelling theorists use to describe the process in which……
The attempt to control deviance, leads to an increase in the level of deviance. Rather than stop deviance, it begins to spiral out of control
What event does sociologist Cohen apply the idea of deviance amplification to?
The mods vs rockers disturbances in Clacton, 1964.
What specifically is meant by the deviance amplification SPIRAL ?
Society’s reaction to a deviant act leads not to successful control of deviance, but to further deviance, which in turn leads to further reaction, and so on.
Summarise the characteristics of the mods and rockers 1964
Modernists - funky style, modern music, dancing, rode scooters. Celebrated liberty and black American music
Rockers - rode bikes, wore leather, loved rock n roll music
What role did the press play in the mods and rockers events of 1964?
Exaggerated the event with big headlines. Called them maniacs having battles. Predicted there would be more trouble at the next bank holiday (there was)
What happened at the seaside towns in 1964 between the mods and the rockers?
Began very insignificant. Groups were deviant on the pier. Some threw rocks, a couple of arrests. In the summer - broke deck chairs, small clash between groups. Bit of violence
What do labelling theorists argue criminalising certain acts can cause?
Criminalising certain acts tends to lead to even more deviance and criminals, trapping individuals in a spiral of delinquency
What example can we give where an act was decriminalised and it had positive impacts and less deviance ?
Decriminalising cannabis - Portugal
Summarise the impacts of decriminalising cannabis in Portugal
2001 - possessing drugs no longer punishable by imprisonment. Drug related deaths and diseases have massively decreased. Less prisoners sentenced for drugs. Much less drug use. Less stigma
Which sociologist looks at the different types of shaming? (Negative labelling)
BRAITHWAITE 1989
What 2 types of shaming does Braithwaite identify?
- disintegrative shaming
- reintegrative shaming
What is disintegrative shaming ?
Where the crime and the criminal are both labelled as bad. The individual is seen as a bad person who had done a bad thing. The offended is degraded, humiliated and excluded from society.
What is reintegrative shaming?
The act, rather than the actor is labelled as bad. The individual is seen as a good person who has done a bad deed. Societies with reintegrative shaming tend to be forgiving + respectful but still take the. Crime seriously
Give an example of disintegrative shaming
- media / the press name and shame ppl
- prison culture in the UK + the courtroom process humiliated people
- historically : public executions, stocks
Give an example of reintegrative shaming
Rehabilitation schemes
Community service
Restorative Justice
Give an example case study for reintegrative shaming + summarise it
Japan used reintegrative shaming. It has a very low crime rate + has a sustained decline in crime rate over past 50 years. Low imprisonment rate - 37 per 100,000 population. Japanese schools use this method for controlling delinquency.
NAME the 2 studies ( 4 sociologists) that look at mental illness from an interactionist perspective
‘Paranoia as a self fulfilling prophecy’ - Lemert, Rosenhan
‘Institutionalisation’ - Goffman, Braginski
NAME the 2 studies (2 sociologists) that look at suicide from a interactionist perspective
‘Coroner’s common sense knowledge’ - Atkinson
‘The meaning of suicide’ - Douglas
Give 3 criticisms of labelling theory’s view of crime & deviance
-it is deterministic.
-sees the offender as the victim.
-implies that deviance only exists because of labelling.
-fails to explain why individuals may choose deviance before label is attached.
-fails to explain the role of the powerful in creating labels.
-ignores the fact that individuals may choose deviance, rather than it being the result of the labelling process.
