Interactionism And Labelling Theory (crime)

Question 1

What do labelling theorists see crime and deviance as ?

Answer 1

A social construct

Question 2

Whether an act is seen as deviant or not depends on what 4 factors?

Answer 2

-culture
-place
-social situation / context
-time (of day: point in history)

Question 3

Which interactionist sociologist argues that deviance is a relative and not absolute concept?

Answer 3

BECKER 1963

Question 4

What does social construction mean?

Answer 4

Where society defines expectations. Not a fixed, naturally occurring phenomenon, created by society and changes across cultures / over time

Question 5

What example does Becker give of deviance as a social construction

Answer 5

NUDITY

Question 6

What name does Becker give to the people who lead a moral crusade to change law.

Answer 6

MORAL ENTREPRENEURS

Question 7

The new laws created my moral entrepreneurs have what 2 effects?

Answer 7

1- creates a new group of outsiders/deviants
2- creates/expands a social control agency to enforce the law and labels

Question 8

Explain Platt’s Victorian example of moral entrepreneurs

Answer 8

-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

Question 9

Name the case for a more recent example of moral entrepreneurs in the UK that we studied

Answer 9

SARAH’S LAW - 2011

Question 10

What event caused Sarah’s Law? Summarise the story.

Answer 10

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.

Question 11

Who were the moral entrepreneurs in the case of Sarahs law?

Answer 11

Michael + Sara Payn, the parents of the victim

Question 12

Summarise Sarahs law 2011

Answer 12

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.

Question 13

Becker argues that it is not just the harmfulness of certain behaviours that lead to new laws being created, but rather ________________________

Answer 13

The efforts of powerful individuals/groups to redefine behaviour as unacceptable for their own benefit

Question 14

identify the 3 factors that help determine whether a person is arrested, charged and convicted

Answer 14

-their interactions with agencies of social control
-their appearance, background + personal biography
-their situation + circumstances of the offence

Question 15

Sociologists Piliavin and Briar found that police decisions to arrest a youth were mainly based on physical cues such as?

Answer 15

-manner
-clothing
-gender
-class
-ethnicity
-the time and place they were stopped

Question 16

Which case study can be used to support evidence of labelling in crime and deviance ? Name it

Answer 16

CICOUREL : THE NEGOTIATION OF JUSTICE 1968

Question 17

Summarise Cicourel’s Negotation of Justice case study.

Answer 17

-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

Question 18

What did Cicourel’s case study lead him to conclude about labelling within crime and deviance?

Answer 18

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

Question 19

What view do interactionists take on crime statistics?

Answer 19

They believe they are also socially constructed

Question 20

At each stage of the criminal justice system agents of social control make what decision?

Answer 20

Whether to proceed with the criminal to the next stage?

Question 21

The outcome of decision gates depends on what?

Answer 21

The label they agents of social control attach to the individual during their interactions.

Question 22

What do interactionists believe the crime statistics produced by the criminal justice system tell us?

Answer 22

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

Question 23

Name the decision gates in the criminal justice system

Answer 23

-suspect stopped by police
-arrested
-charged
-prosecuted
-convicted
-sentenced

Question 24

What does the ‘dark figure’ of crime refer to?

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Identify the 5 steps of the labelling process

Answer 25

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

Question 26

What do labelling theorists claim that labelling someone as criminal / deviant encourages?

Answer 26

Encouraged them to become more deviant

Question 27

What two concepts does sociologist LEMERT use to demonstrate the effects of labelling?

Answer 27

Primary deviance + secondary deviance

Question 28

What is primary deviance?

Answer 28

Refers to deviant acts that have not been publicly labelled.

Question 29

What is secondary deviance?

Answer 29

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

Question 30

How does Young’s 1971 study into Marijuana users in Notting Hill back up the concepts of primary / secondary deviance? Explain it

Answer 30

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

Question 31

What do sociologists Downed and Rock (2003) point out regarding the effects of labelling?

Answer 31

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

Question 32

Deviance amplification is a term that labelling theorists use to describe the process in which……

Answer 32

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

Question 33

What event does sociologist Cohen apply the idea of deviance amplification to?

Answer 33

The mods vs rockers disturbances in Clacton, 1964.

Question 34

What specifically is meant by the deviance amplification SPIRAL ?

Answer 34

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.

Question 35

Summarise the characteristics of the mods and rockers 1964

Answer 35

Modernists - funky style, modern music, dancing, rode scooters. Celebrated liberty and black American music
Rockers - rode bikes, wore leather, loved rock n roll music