Interactionism & Crime

Question 1

Becker

Answer 1

The social construction of crime - a deviant is someone who the label has been successfully applied, and deviant behaviour is simply behaviour that people so label. Those who are labelled are labelled based on gender, class and ethnicity.

Question 2

Cicourel

Answer 2

Officers typifications (stereotypes) of the typical criminal lead to them concentrate on types of people that are more likely to offend - for instance, by patrolling working class areas.

Question 3

Lemert (2 types of deviance)

Answer 3

Primary deviance - deviant acts that have not been publicly labelled as criminal.
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Secondary deviance - deviant acts and individuals that are labelled. Once an individual has been labelled, people may only see him according to his master status (whereby a criminal is defined by their deviant act), which may lead to a deviant career because they struggle to find employment.

Question 4

Braithwaite (types of shaming)

Answer 4

Reintegrative shaming - punishes them in a way that strengthens their bonds with society.
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Disintegrative shaming - punishment which isolates the individual and causes secondary deviance.

Question 6

Douglas

Answer 6

Rejects the use of official statistics when examining suicide. Whether a death is labelled as a suicide depends on the interactions and negotiations between social actors (doctors, the coroner, family). Statistics therefore tell us nothing about the meaning behind an individual’s decision to commit suicide.