Interactionist theory Flashcards
Define Social construction
Individuals of society construct the social world through interactions
Define Master status
a status that overrides all other statuses
Define Self fulfilling prophecy
when a label is accepted or internalised becomes fulfilled
Define deviancy amplification
when the actions of the media or police cause more crime to be detected/committed
Becker - Labelling theory
“Deviant behaviour is behaviour that people so label”
- Deviance = relative
- Starts with an act, label attached becomes ‘master status’, each label carries prejudices
- Ability to label = moral entrepreneurs (police and the media)
Can lead to more deviance = internalize label - self fulfilling prophecy
E.g. Chambliss (saints and roughnecks) Daniel Briggs (Ibiza) Jock Young (Hippies)
Box - Deviant career
- Four social reasons why ex-cons chose to remain as offenders
Atrophy of interaction skills (don’t know how to be normal)
Social discrimination
Job rejection
Police surveillance and harassment
Lemert – primary and secondary deviance
Process of labelling and observed stuttering
Public speaking regarded highly amongst a Native American group
any sign of speech defect in a child was greeted with such horror that it caused the stuttering
What is primary and secondary deviance?
Primary deviance = first deviant act, case of Lemert it is stuttering
Secondary deviance = response of individual to the response of society (increased stutter)
Evaluation of Lemert
+ Sociologists claim interactionalist fail to explain why individuals commit deviant acts in the first place (primary deviance)
x Highlight’s difference in deviance between different cultures (social constructed
Goffman – stigma
spent 1 year observing interaction in a mental institution (Washington D.C.)
- Mortification process = strips inmate of various supports that helped maintain their former self concepts (clothes may be taken away, appearance may be changed)
- The mortifying experience = lack of freedom of movement and inability to make decisions (assessment, lack of privacy, timetable – further reinforces label of failure or inadequate
Young – Labelling and Marijuana users
- ‘hippy’ marijuana users in London
- Police saw hippies as dirty, lazy drug addicts
- retreat into smaller groups
- Deviant norms and values develop within closed groups (drug use is central activity)
- Police react more strongly to the deviancy they helped create
- Drug taking = important system of difference
- Deviant subculture evolves and self-concepts are reinforced, increases difficulty of hippies to return to conventional society
Wilkins – deviancy amplification spiral
- created the concept of deviancy amplification, suggesting small initial deviation may spiral into ever-increasing significance through process of labelling and overreacting e.g. Brixton Riots
McRobbie and Thornton say the problem with moral panics – they are outdated, there are so many of them today we have become desensitised
Brixton Riots (deviancy amplification spiral)
Response to people of Brixton is not positive
Police = moral entrepreneurs
Operation SWAMP: negative connotations
5 days, 1000 people (increased social reaction)
Over 200 youths fought against the police
Secondary deviance
Interactionists and Official statistics
- Interactionists reject official statistics on crime, seeing them little more than social construction
- Argue OS underestimate the extend of crime/don’t show an accurate picture of the social distribution of criminality
- Point out biases in statistics are caused by: Unreported crime Unrecorded crime Police bias Media
Not everyone who commits an offence is punished
Braithwaite - Shaming
Disintegrative shaming = where not only the crime but also the criminal is labelled as bad and the offender is excluded from society
Reintegrative shaming = label the act but not the actor, stigmatise the offender as evil, white at the same time making them aware of the negative impact on others, crime rates are lower in societies where reintegrative rather than disintegrative
