Interactionist and labelling theories of Crime

Question 0

What are the 3 central beliefs which underlie interactionism according to Blumer?

Answer 0

Humans act towards things on the basis of meanings, Those meanings are derived from social interaction, Meanings are modified through interpretive processes

Question 1

How do interactionists define deviance?

Answer 1

From an interactionist perspective, deviance is an act which has been labelled as such

Question 2

How did interactionism challenge functionalism?

Answer 2

Interactionist question why some behaviour is defined as criminal or deviant in some contexts but not others, Interactionists also argue that deviants are not a distinctive population and we instead should look at the process of interaction and argue that the search for the causes of deviance is seen to be fruitless

Question 3

What is ‘labelling theory’?

Answer 3

Labelling theory States that there is nothing intrinsically deviant about any act. It only becomes deviant when it is seen as such and labelled as such

Question 4

What is the difference between ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ deviance?

Answer 4

Primary deviance is deviant acts that have not been publicly labelled whereas secondary deviance involves acts which have been publicly labelled as deviant and the deviance which is generated by the label

Question 5

Explain what is meant by master status and self-fulfilling prophecy?

Answer 5

A master status is one which overrides all other statuses and the self fulfilling prophecy is a prophecy which comes to pass simply because it has been made and has been internalised which causes it to fulfil itself

Question 6

Evaluate ‘labelling theory’

Answer 6

It draws attention to the importance of labelling and societal reaction and it shows that certain types of people are singled out for labelling. However, it has been criticised on the grounds that deviance is not simply created by the label and labelling theory fails to explain why certain types of people are selected as likely deviants rather than others

Question 7

According to Stanley Cohen, what is a ‘moral panic’?

Answer 7

A moral panic occurs when a ‘condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests’ which tends to be instigated by the media

Question 8

Summarise the deviance amplification spiral described by Cohen

Answer 8

Deviancy amplification is a process in which deviance is increased by societal reaction such as the mods and rockers

Question 9

What do interactionist theories of crime and deviance reject?

Answer 9

Official statistics on crime and structural casual explanations of crime and deviance

Question 10

How do interactionists criticise official crime statistics?

Answer 10

They see them as little more than social constructions and they argue that they vastly underestimate the extent of crime and do not present an accurate picture of the social distribution of criminality

Question 11

What term does Becker use to describe agents of social control?

Answer 11

Moral entrepreneurs

Question 12

According to Becker, what is the consequence of a socially created nature of crime and deviance?

Answer 12

It varies over time and between cultures

Question 13

What does Becker believe to be the amount and distribution of crime to be dependent upon?

Answer 13

The processes of social interaction between the deviant and powerful agencies of social control

Question 14

According to Becker, what can the acquisition of a label cause an individual to gain?

Answer 14

A master status

Question 15

What is a master status?

Answer 15

A status/label that dominates and shapes how others see the individual

Question 16

What is the consequence of gaining a master status?

Answer 16

The individual effectively becomes stigmatised which leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy where they take up a career of deviance

Question 17

According to interactionists, how do the media amplify crime?

Answer 17

They demonise deviants and create moral panics

Question 18

Recent studies have shown how increases on the attempt to control and punish young offenders are having the opposite effect. Give an example

Answer 18

In the USA, Triplett notes an increasing tendency to see young offenders as evil and to be less tolerant of minor deviance

Question 19

How does Becker define a ‘deviant’?

Answer 19

Someone to whom a label has been successfully applied

Question 20

According to labelling theory, whether a person is arrested, charged and convicted of an offence depends on what factors?

Answer 20

Their interactions with agencies of social control, their appearance, back and personal biography and the situation/circumstances of the offence

Question 21

What did Piliavin and Briar find about what influenced officers decisions?

Answer 21

They found that officers decisions were based on physical cues, the suspects gender, class and ethnicity, as well as by time and place

Question 22

Cicourel found that officers typifications led them to concentrate on certain ‘types’. What are typifications?

Answer 22

Their commonsense theories or stereotypes of what the typical delinquent is like

Question 23

What are the consequences of officers having typifications?

Answer 23

Law enforcement shows a class bias which, in turn, led the police to patrol working class areas more intensively, resulting in more arrests and confirming their stereotypes

Question 24

In Cicourel’s view, justice is not fixed but negotiable. Give an example of this

Answer 24

When a middle class youth is arrested he is less likely to be charged. This is partly because his background did not fit the idea of the police’s typical delinquent, and partly because his parents were more likely to negotiate successfully on his behalf

Question 25

Who distinguishes between primary and secondary deviance?

Answer 25

Edwin Lemert

Question 26

What are the consequences of an individual being given a master status?

Answer 26

It provokes a crisis for the individuals self-concept or sense of identity

Question 27

What is one way for an individual to resolve the crisis for their self-concept?

Answer 27

For the individual to accept the deviant label and see themselves as society sees them, leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy

Question 28

What may secondary deviance lead to?

Answer 28

It may provoke further hostile reactions from society and reinforce the deviant’s outsider status which may lead to a deviant career

Question 29

Who uses the concepts of secondary deviance and deviant career in their study of hippy marijuana users in Notting Hill?

Answer 29

Jock Young

Question 30

What do Downes and Rock note about deviant careers?

Answer 30

They argue that 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 31

What is a deviance amplification spiral?

Answer 31

A term labelling theorists use to describe a process in which the attempt to control deviance leads to an increase in the level of deviance

Question 32

Who sees the labelling process as having a more positive role?

Answer 32

John Braithwaite

Question 33

What two types of negative labelling does Braithwaite distinguish?

Answer 33

Disintegrative shaming where not only the crime but also the criminal is labelled as bad and is excluded from society and Reintegrative shaming where the act but not the actor is labelled

Question 34

How is labelling theory criticised?

Answer 34

It is deterministic and fails to explain primary deviance and the origin of the labels