Interactionist theories

Question 1

Interactionist theories of crime and deviance

Answer 1

• are commonly referred to as labelling theory
• suggests that because so many involve themselves in a range of deviant and illegal behaviour it is pointless to try to find the causes of crime
• official crime statistics are seen as social constructions, resulting from an unrepresentative group of offenders who have been labelled as ‘criminal’
• seeks to explain why only some people and some acts are defined as deviant or criminal, while others carrying out similar acts are not

Question 2

The focus of labelling theory

Answer 2

• the interaction between deviants and those who define them as deviant, and why particular individuals and groups are defined as deviant
• the process whereby rules are selective enforced and why the response to rule-breaking is not always the same
• the consequences of being labelled as ‘deviant’, how people react, the effects of the label (eg self-fulfilling prophecy, deviancy amplification etc)
• circumstances in which a person becomes set apart and defined as deviant
• an analysis of who has the power to attach deviant labels and make them ‘stick’

Question 3

Becker suggests that an act only becomes deviant when others

Answer 3

perceive and define it as such, and whether or not the deviant label is applied will depend on societal reaction

Question 4

Becker calls agencies, such as the media and the police,

Answer 4

who have the power and resources to create or enforce rules and impose their definitions of deviance, moral entrepeneurs

Question 5

Moral entrepreneur definition (Becker)

Answer 5

a person, group or organisation with the power to create or enforce rules and impose their definitions of deviance

Question 6

Quote from Becker’s ‘Outsiders’

Answer 6

Social groups create deviance by making the rules who infraction constitutes deviance, and by applying those rules to particular people and labelling them as outsiders. From this point of view, deviance is not a quality of the act the person commits, but rather a consequence of the application by others of the rules and sanctions to an ‘offender’. The deviant is one to whom the label has successfully been applied. Deviant behaviour is behaviour that people so label.

Question 7

Selective law enforcement

Answer 7

• agencies of social control use discretion and selective judgement in deciding whether and how to deal with illegal behaviour (eg police can’t prosecute all crime due to resources and public support) so different acts are labelled differently
• Becker - police operate with the pre-existing conceptions and stereotypes of what constitutes ‘trouble’
• what action is taken will depend on the stereotypes of groups and offences law enforcement agencies hold

Question 8

Selective law enforcement - the work of Cicourel (1976)

Answer 8

• uses a phenomenological approach to understand how law-enforcers make sense of and interpret what they see
• suggests that subjective perceptions and stereotypes can affect whether criminal labels are attached, and these lead to the social construction of crime statistics
• studied juvenile delinquency in 2 US cities and found juvenile crime rates were consistently higher in working class communities
• found that this was because the police viewed the deviant behaviour of middle class juveniles as a temporary lapse as they came from ‘good backgrounds’ with lots of support, whereas they prosecuted working-class youth due to holding the opposite opinion
• suggested that we need to look at the choices made by police over where they patrol, who they suspect and therefore who they stop and search, arrest and charge

Question 9

Primary deviance (Lemert) definition

Answer 9

deviance that has not been publicly labelled as such

Question 10

Secondary deviance (Lemert) definition

Answer 10

deviance that follows once a person has been publicly labelled as deviant

Question 11

Master status (Becker) definition

Answer 11

one which displaces all other features of a person’s social standing, and a person is judged solely in terms of that one defining characteristic

Question 12

Lemert (1972) - primary and secondary deviance

Answer 12

• primary deviance is not publicly labelled as such eg breaking traffic laws, using drugs etc - few consequences for the person, as long as nobody knows about it
• once an offender has been discovered, exposed and labelled as deviant is attached, secondary deviance may occur

Question 13

Becker - master status

Answer 13

• attachment of a label may have major consequences for the individual’s self-concept and their future actions, because the deviant label can become a ‘master status’
• eg if someone is caught downloading child pornography, other identities like manager, husband, sportsman etc can be displaced by labels like paedophile, becoming their defining status
• others respond to this individual in light of this master status and assume that they have all the negative attributes of the label
• this is where secondary deviance begins, arising from the label and the societal reaction
• sustaining an alternative image in the deviant’s own eyes and those of others becomes difficult once master status is applied

Question 14

Deviant career definition

Answer 14

what arises when people who have been labelled as deviant find conventional opportunities are blocked to them, and so are pushed into committing further deviant acts

Question 15

Becker - deviant careers and the self-fulfilling prophecy

Answer 15

• suggests that labelling can lead to self-fulfilling prophecy and a deviant career similar to an occupational career, as those labelled as ‘deviant’ become ‘outsiders’
• this labelling can lead to further deviance by limiting other opportunities
• a deviant career may begin when the individual joins or identifies with a similar deviant group
• Cohen’s (1972) work on deviancy amplification and moral panics illustrated this process through the conflict between Mods and Rockers
• Young’s (1971) participant observation of hippie marijuana-users in Notting Hill also demonstrated this process

Question 16

Plummer (2011) - influence of labelling theory

Answer 16

although few contemporary sociologists now describe themselves as labelling theorists, it remains enormously influential and is embedded in a range of contemporary sociology (eg moral panics, crime and popular culture, stereotyping, post-modernist theories)

Question 17

Strengths of labelling theory

Answer 17

• provides insights into the nature of deviance not provided by structural theories
• challenges the idea that deviants are different from ‘normal’ people
• shows the importance of the reactions of others in defining and creating deviance
• reveals the importance of stereotyping in understanding deviance
• reveals the way official crime statistics are a product of bias in law-enforcement
• it reveals the importance of those with power in defining acts and people as deviant
• highlights the importance of those with power in defining acts and people as deviant
• highlights the role of moral entrepreneurs, like media, in defining and creating deviance and generating moral panics
• shows how labelling can lead to self-fulfilling prophecy and deviant careers
• shows how the deviant labels can affect the self-concept of the deviant

Question 18

Weaknesses of labelling theory

Answer 18

• tends to remove the blame for deviance away from the deviant and onto those who define them as such, making the deviant seem like a victim
• assumes an act isn’t deviant until it is labelled, yet many deviants are aware their actions are deviant
• doesn’t explain the causes of deviant behaviour which precede the labelling process (primary deviance) or the range of deviant acts (drugs vs murder)
• too deterministic - some people choose deviance and it doesn’t always lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy - Becker recognises that individuals can choose to avoid a deviant career by seeking rehabilitation
• doesn’t explain different reactions to deviance or the origins of stereotypes
• ignores the importance of wider social factors
• has little to say about the victims of crime
• not real policy solutions to crime, beyond making fewer rules and no ‘naming and shaming’ offenders
• does not explain why some behaviours are illegal and others aren’t