Interactionist Labelling Theory Of Crime

Question 1

Howard Becker - no such thing as a deviant act

Answer 1

Crime is a product of social interactions: in a low income neighbourhood, a fight is more likely to be defined by the police as evidence of delinquency but in a wealthy neighbourhood as evidence of being highsprung

Question 2

Deviance amplification

Answer 2

Being labelled as deviant can lead to deviance amplification because this label can become our master status - the main way in which we think of and identify ourselves

Question 3

2015 survey

Answer 3

Survey of 2000 people , the average person in Britain breaks the law 17 times a year with 63% admitting to speeding, 33% stealing and 25% taking illegal drugs

Question 4

Becker - stop and search

Answer 4

Those who are stopped and searched in the street are disproportionately young men who are unemployed or casually employed

Question 5

Cicourel 1968

Answer 5

Definitions of criminality can be negotiated by some groups. He observed that when arrested, a middle class youth was less likely to be charged with a criminal offence than a working class youth because his social background doesn’t fit the polices stereotypical view of a typical delinquent

Question 6

Consequences of labelling

Answer 6

Becker - the deviant may be forced to seek the company of those similarly labelled and to become part of a deviant subculture. This increases the potential for a self fulfilling prophecy because the membership of the subculture may offer the individual opportunities to reoffend

Question 7

Lemert

Answer 7

Emphasised the importance of social reaction and distinguished between primary and secondary deviation
Primary deviation - consisting of deviant acts before they are publically labelled
Secondary = response of the individual or the group to societal reaction
He believes societal reaction to be the major cause of deviance

Question 8

Moral entrepreneurs -Becker

Answer 8

Laws are the reflection of the activities of people who actively seek to create and enforce rules and laws , they do this to benefit themselves , they believe that the laws benefit society
Moral entrepreneurs may be news editors, MPs, religious readers or individuals who start a campaign

Question 9

Deviancy amplification- young

Answer 9

Carried out research into the hippie marijuana uses in Notting hill:
Police began targeting a group of hippies which served To widen the gap between them and convention of society. This resulted in drug taking becoming a symbol of the groups deviance against the police
This consequently caused a deviant subculture to develop and the hippies to internalise their label and become marginalised from society

Question 10

Stan Cohen 1972

Answer 10

Researched the fights which took place mainly in English seaside resorts on bank holidays between two youth subcultures ( mixture of content analysis, interviews and observation)
Folk devils- when the media reports on deviant behaviour they construct a narrative which features a clear villain e.g the violent youth subcultures
Moral panics - the exaggerated reaction of the media meant that the police responded to future conflict more forcefully and thus created further conflicts

Question 11

Criticisms of Stan Cohen

Answer 11

Cohen’s formulation of moral panic theory assumes that the audience are passive , but audiences today are much more active and able to critically evaluate media content

Question 12

Evaluation : Akers and Sellers

Answer 12

The deviant act is always more important than the societal reaction to it . Deviants know that what they are doing is wrong even if their acts go undiscovered

Question 13

Evaluation : too deterministic

Answer 13

Heavily implies that labelling inevitably leads to a deviant career and it doesn’t account for free will, choice or reduction in deviance due to societal reaction

Question 14

Labelling Theory applied to education

Answer 14

Within schools, Howard Becker argued that middle class teachers have an idea of an ideal pupil that is middle class.