Interactionist Theories of Crime Flashcards
What do Interactionists focus on?
How interactions between people define what is considered “deviant” or “criminal”. Labelling theorists explore why some acts are deviant and others are not (so we are all deviant in some way), and why some groups are criminalised and others are not.
What does Lemert theorise?
Primary Deviance = deviance that is not publicly labeled as such. E.g: breaking traffic laws.
Secondary Deviance = once an offender is discovered/publicly exposed and the label of ‘deviance’ is attached, then secondary deviance may occur as the label becomes the master status. E.g: sex offenders.
Evaluation of Lemert:
Strengths = shows the importance of the reactions of others in defining and creating deviance.
Weaknesses = doesn’t explain why people commit primary deviance in the first place, and also assumes that an act isn’t deviant until it is labelled as such, yet people know what they’re doing is deviant.
What does Becker theorise?
- Deviance is socially constructed, and a crime is only a crime if it is labelled as one. The agents of social control and moral entrepreneurs have the power to enforce laws and to decide what is criminal and label those who break the established rules as deviant.
- The act isn’t deviant, but the label attached is.
E.g: injecting heroin when done by a doctor is to relieve pain, but if it is done by an addict it is frowned upon.
What is the process of labelling?
Negative Label > Label Reinforced > Master Status > Self-fulfilling prophecy > Deviant career
What was Jock Young’s study?
‘The Drug Takers’ = police created deviancy amplification. Hippies drug-taking levels low, but media pressure leads to police targeting them, making the hippies more secretive about their activities. This leads to the hippies and police distrusting each other, and their deviancy is amplified into a ‘crime wave’ where they show higher rates of crime in official statistics.
What has police targeting led to?
- Less tolerant of minor deviance, re-labelled offences so harsher sentences, leading to an increase in offending (secondary deviance).
- Should enforce fewer rules for people to break. E.g: legalisation of illicit drugs in an attempt to reduce the number of people with criminal convictions.
Evaluation of Becker and Young:
Strengths = Becker helps to show that crime statistics are more a record of police activities, rather than crime.
Weaknesses = Deterministic, can have self-negating prophecies. Also assumes that offenders are passive victims, may choose deviance.
What did Cicourel theorise?
Police view the lower-classes as from “bad homes with bad attitudes”, leading to a class bias where they focus on these neighbourhoods, resulting in more arrests and reinforcing these stereotypes.
What is the ‘Negotiation of Justice’? (Cicourel)
The working-classes are more likely to be stopped, searched, arrested and charged, whilst middle-class children are more likely to be counselled cautioned and released.
- MC parents can negotiate their way out of crimes, as they are seen as respectable people who are willing to cooperate with the police. E.g: Lavina Woodward, who attended Oxford uni, avoided jail after stabbing her boyfriend.
Evaluation of Cicourel:
Weaknesses = fails to explain how subjective meanings occur (why stereotypes exist), and doesn’t explain how different groups have different levels of power. E.g: gender, ethnicity, Marxists.
(EVAL/CONCLUSION) What does Braithwaite theorise?
REINTEGRATIVE SHAMING = Labelling can be positive, as if we label the act as bad instead of the offender, it avoids stigmatising the actor as ‘evil’ and makes it easier to rehabilitate them back into mainstream society. Leads to lower crime rates.
- Also avoids pushing them into secondary deviance.
