Interactionism & Labelling Theory Flashcards
Moral Entrepreneur
Becker argues they are people who lead a moral crusade to change the law.
Juvenile Delinquency
Platt argues that this was created by a campaign by upper-class Victorian moral entrepreneurs to separate young ‘juveniles’
The negotiation of justice
Circourel found that typifications of officers resulted in a class bias which was also found in other agents of social control.
Official Crime Statistics: Interactionists
Interactionists see the official crime statistics as socially constructed
Stages in the social construction of crime
- Suspect stopped by the police
- Arrested
- Charged
- Prosecuted
- Convicted
- Sentenced
The dark Figure Of Crime
We don’t know for certain how much crime goes undetected, unreported, and unrecorded
Primary deviance
Lemert (1951) primary deviance refers to deviant acts that have not been publically labeled, & it is pointless to seek the causes of it.
Secondary Deviance
Lemert (1951) argues that secondary deviance refers to the result of a societal reaction (labelling). Being caught and publicly labelled can lead to stigmatisation and shame, which is then because of one’s master status.
Master Status
This is a controlling identity which overrides all others due to secondary labelling, in the eyes of the world he is seen as an outsider, a thief, or a junkie
Further Deviance
Lemert refers to the further deviance that results from acting out the label as secondary deviance
Deviant Career
Secondary deviance is likely to provoke an ‘outsider’ status leading to more deviance as no one will employ and ex-convict leading them to join deviant subcultures that offer deviant career opportunities.
Deviance Amplification Spiral
Labelling theorists use to describe a process in which the attempt to control deviance leads to an increase in the level of deviance.
Folk Devils & Moral Panics
Stanley Cohen’s study of the societal reaction of ‘mods and rockers’
Disintegrative Shaming
Braithwaite (1989) not only the crime but also the criminal, is labelled as bad and the offender is excluded from society
Reintegrative Shaming
Braithwaite (1989) labels the act but not the actor as ‘he has done a bad thing, but is not a bad person.’
Reintegrative Shaming
Braithwaite (1989) argues that crime rates tend to be lower in societies where reintegrative rather than disintegrative is the dominant way of dealing with others
The meaning of suicide
Douglas (1969) argues that official crime statistics tell us about the activities of the people who construct them, such as police, rather than the real rate of crime or suicide in society.
Mental Illness
Interactionists reject official statistics on mental illness because they regard this as social constructs
Study Of Paranoia
Lemert’s (1962) study notes that some individuals don’t fit easily into groups, and as a result of this primary deviance, others label the person as odd and begins to exclude him
Pseudo Patient
Rosenhan’s (1973) experiment of where researchers admitted themselves to several hospitals and were treated by the staff as mentally ill, for example, the pseudo-patient kept notes of their experience, but staff interpreted that as a symptom of illness
Criticisms of the Labelling Theory
It is seen as too deterministic
Fails to explain why deviance happens in the first place
