Interactionist theory

Question 1

Interactionism

Answer 1

-Vast majority of people break the law so can be seen as criminals
-OCS is therefore innacurate
so they question if vast amount of people break the law why are only some labelled as criminal

Question 2

Becker

Answer 2

• Crime is a social construct,its not the act thats criminal its societies reaction to it
• Moral entrepeneurs are peop;e who change the law in belief it will benefit others
• its not the harmfulness of the act thats criminal but the efforts of powerful induviduals who campaign to have it defined as such
• all this does is create a group of newly criminalised outsiders
• expands agencies of control such as police,whether you get labelled depends on appearance/interaction with police/circumstance of offence

Question 3

Cicourel

Answer 3

proves beckers theory:

• carried out 4 year NP observation studying policing finding polices decisions to arrest are based on typifications(w/c are more intensively policed resulting in more arrests confirming the typifications)
• when m/c youths are arrested theyre less likely to be charged because they do not fit the typical steoreotype and parents have cultural capital to negotiate
• therefore justice is negotiated not fixed(OCS cannot be trusted)

Question 4

chambliss(saints)

Answer 4

1973 study of two boy groups in a high school
-The saints were 8 delinquent m/c boys,the roughnecks were a group of 6 delinquent w/c boys
-both commited same type of anti social behaviour
Roughnecks were labelled as delinquents and were in frequent contact with police bc itt was done in their area
-By the time roughnecks grew up 2 became serious criminals whereas all the saints graduated from university and went to proffesinal occupations

Question 5

Lemert(primary)

Answer 5

-Arguing by labelling induviduals as criminal society encourages them to actually become even more criminal
primary deviance- deviant act that have not been publicly labelled,not labelled by others and have no effect on peprpetrator
secondary deviance-action tha tis labelled criminal by others as a result of societal reaction as its labelled as deviant.
-Once labelled it becomes their master status-a main label that over rides all others that a person may have,becoming an outsider to never re join society
-self fulflfilling prophecy happens and deviance is amplified

Question 6

Young(drug use)

Answer 6

• studied drug users in notting hill in 1971
• found initially drug use was peripheral(not a major part of lifestyle=primary deviance)
• however increasing persecution and labelling by control culture led to hippies increaslingy seeing themselves as outsiders
• Began to form a subculture and drug became centre activity
• labelling of the act as deviant led to increase in level of deviance

Question 7

s.cohen(mods and rockers)

Answer 7

• studies mods and rockers in 1964
• examined newspaper reports and found violence between mods and rockers
• cohen found press had huglely exagerated the events,the fighting and general criminality were minor
• due to sensationalist media reporting the distrubance the youth were seen as folk devils-a threat to social order
• S.F.P took place and they engaged in more fighting seeing eachother as “enemies”
• casued moral panic,resulting in deviancy amplificatin to descibre process to try control deviance leads to an increase

Question 8

Triplett(attempt to control)

Answer 8

• argues attempt to control crime leads to an increase in
• young offendros are being seen as evil and minor deviance such as truancy is being treated as a serious offence thus criminilising the youth leading to more serious criminal behaviour
• supports lemert that labelling leads to secondary deviance

Question 9

braithwaite(positive)

Answer 9

• recognised positive role of labelling
• Disintergrative shamig-both criminal and crime are labelled as bad and offender is excluded from society
• reintergrative shaming-act is labelled bad but not the person who committed it this avoids stigmatising the offender but makes them realise they ahve done something wrong as well as encourging others to forgive them prevent further crime

Question 10

Douglas

Answer 10

-argues all stats are a social construct by coroners-
argues family and friends may find it difficult to accept the possibility of suicide and hide the suicide note.without the note the coronoer would be reluctant to reach a verdict of suicide
-argues this is why catholic countries have low suicide rates showing coroner is more likely to record a verdict of accidental death as suicide is stigimatised
-Need to read diary to understand reason for death

Question 11

Atkinson

Answer 11

argress suicide stats are socially constructed by coroners
-argues coroners use primary/secondary clues to uncover suicide intent.
-primary clues include suicide notes,drug use
-secondary clues include life history and state of mind.
suicide stats are a social construct because they are the interpretations of coroners.