Interactionists Flashcards
Key Points
- Crime statistics aren’t an accurate reflection of criminality.
- Believe they reflect assumptions and judgement made by agencies of social control e.g. police.
- Interested in why groups have been defined as crimes or deviant how it affects their actions.
Who created Master status?
What is Master Status?
BECKER
a status that colours all other statuses and roles a person has. The label of deviant can become a master status. It can affect how other interpret all your actions.
What is Self fulfilling Prophecy?
describe a prediction that causes itself to become true.
What is Public Labelling?
What did Malinowski study?
behaviour only becomes deviant when it is defined and labelled as such.
- studied the Trobriand Island in South Pacific. They found that incest between cousins was seen as deviant, but was commonplace in daily life and people turned a blind eye. One man was in a public relationship with his cousin. His rivalry publicly accused him and he committed suicide, as it was seen as the only honourable thing to do. Only became a serious issue after the public accusation.
What is Primary and Secondary Deviance? - Lemert
Primary deviance: deviant acts that are not publicly labelled and have little effect on the self-concept. Secondary deviance: purposefully deviant behaviour that is an expression of a deviant self-concept.
What did Matz argue?
argued that many youths will drift in and out of deviance. They feel a moral obligation to obey the law. They also feel the pressure of subterranean values (risk-taking, excitement). When they commit a deviant act, they will employ techniques of neutralisation which justify the act and prevent a deviant identity and self-concept forming. This allows them to return legal activities.
Influences of agencies of social control on the social construction of deviance (Young)
- looked at society’s reaction young taking drugs. Looked at groups who faced anomie and who created a Bohemian subculture seeking out like minded people and smoking marijuana as a solution to their problems. Powerful groups in society saw this as a risk to their interests so the media and criminal justice system acted. Deviance increased due to deviance amplification, rebellion induced, isolation induced, internalised etc.
Strengths of Interactionists idea
- Does not just accept the idea of the typical criminal.
- Recognises that the divide between deviant and non-deviant is not simple. We are all deviant. Cannot explain the original deviant reaction, before labelling takes place.
- Argued that everyone commits deviant acts, but only some are labelled, so an explanation isn’t needed.
Limitations of Interactionist idea on C&D
WEAKNESSES: Plummer – interactionism does consider individual motivation and that some try to get rid of their label. Interactionists ideas only apply to minor or particular types of crime.
