Interactionism & Labelling Theory

Question 1

Moral Entrepreneur

Answer 1

Becker argues they are people who lead a moral crusade to change the law.

Question 2

Juvenile Delinquency

Answer 2

Platt argues that this was created by a campaign by upper-class Victorian moral entrepreneurs to separate young ‘juveniles’

Question 3

The negotiation of justice

Answer 3

Circourel found that typifications of officers resulted in a class bias which was also found in other agents of social control.

Question 4

Official Crime Statistics: Interactionists

Answer 4

Interactionists see the official crime statistics as socially constructed

Question 5

Stages in the social construction of crime

Answer 5

1. Suspect stopped by the police
2. Arrested
3. Charged
4. Prosecuted
5. Convicted
6. Sentenced

Question 6

The dark Figure Of Crime

Answer 6

We don’t know for certain how much crime goes undetected, unreported, and unrecorded

Question 7

Primary deviance

Answer 7

Lemert (1951) primary deviance refers to deviant acts that have not been publically labeled, & it is pointless to seek the causes of it.

Question 8

Secondary Deviance

Answer 8

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.

Question 9

Master Status

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Further Deviance

Answer 10

Lemert refers to the further deviance that results from acting out the label as secondary deviance

Question 11

Deviant Career

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

Deviance Amplification Spiral

Answer 12

Labelling theorists use to describe a process in which the attempt to control deviance leads to an increase in the level of deviance.

Question 13

Folk Devils & Moral Panics

Answer 13

Stanley Cohen’s study of the societal reaction of ‘mods and rockers’

Question 14

Disintegrative Shaming

Answer 14

Braithwaite (1989) not only the crime but also the criminal, is labelled as bad and the offender is excluded from society

Question 15

Reintegrative Shaming

Answer 15

Braithwaite (1989) labels the act but not the actor as ‘he has done a bad thing, but is not a bad person.’

Question 16

Reintegrative Shaming

Answer 16

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

Question 17

The meaning of suicide

Answer 17

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.

Question 18

Mental Illness

Answer 18

Interactionists reject official statistics on mental illness because they regard this as social constructs

Question 19

Study Of Paranoia

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Pseudo Patient

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Criticisms of the Labelling Theory

Answer 21

It is seen as too deterministic
Fails to explain why deviance happens in the first place