labelling and crime

Question 1

what does becker say about the social construction of crime?

Answer 1

deviance isn’t an act but rather the consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions to an ‘offender’

Question 2

how and why are laws made

Answer 2

a moral entrepreneur (someone with the power to influence changes in the law) create new laws against the action by creating:

• moral crusade
• creates a group of social outsiders

Question 3

example of video nasties law creating deviance

Answer 3

moral entrepreneur: Mary Whitehouse

moral crusade: videos having a negative effect on young leading to violence

group of outsiders: movie creators, publishers and distributes

led to: video recording act 1984 which meant all movies needed to have classifications

Question 4

what did pilavin and briar find about who gets labeled?

Answer 4

found that police decisions to arrest a youth were mainly based on physical causes such as manners and dress

Question 5

what did Cicourel find about the negotiation of justice?

Answer 5

• decisions to arrest based on ‘typifications’ that officers have on what a criminal is
  leading to over-policing of WC or predominantly black areas, leading to higher arrest rates which lead to crime statistics confirming the stereotypes
• in 2019 there were 6 white stops and searches per 1,000 and 54 black
• crime statistics are therefore unreliable not all crimes is reported, socially constructed statistics over-represent WC and under-represent MC

Question 6

criticisms of cicourel tipifications

Answer 6

Marxists argues that if focuses too much on the ‘middle men’ of policemen and law enforcers who apply the labels rather than the capitalists who make the rules in the first place

Question 7

what did Lemert find about how labelling leads to secondary deviance

Answer 7

• master statues: when someone is labeled as deviant others may see them only in terms of this label.
• self-concept: the crisis of self-concept. one way to resolve this is to accept the label and see how the world see them
• self-fulfilling prophecy: individual acts out and live sup to label

secondary deviance is then committed which can lead to a deviant career and a deviant subculture

Question 8

what did jock young find about secondary deviance and drug use

Answer 8

drug use was originally not a major part of the hippy lifestyle

persecution and labelling from officers led to hippies seeing them as outsiders

created deviant subculture and self-fulfilling prophecy as drugs become a central activity of the group

‘it’s not the act itself but the reaction from society creating deviance’

Question 9

what is a criticism of secondary deviance (lemert and young)

Answer 9

(Downes and rock)
a self-fulfilling prophecy is not inevitable. we cannot predict whether someone who has been labeled will follow a deviant career. people have agency and free will to not deviant further

TOO DETERMINISTIC

Question 10

what did Stanley cohen say about deviance amplification

Answer 10

as more attempts to control deviance are made, they actually lead to higher levels

a cycle of deviance taking place attempts to prevent causes more which leads to further attempts to prevent it

Question 11

what does Stanley cohen mean about a moral panic?

Answer 11

• a problem is identifies
• and a deviant subculture is made clear
• sigma media about their dangerousness and deviance
• media coverage creates a moral panic
• police or government intervention due to the media attention
• police getting involved confirmed the panic for the population
• LEADS TO DEVIANCE AMPLIFICATION AS MORE PEOPLE GET INVOLVED DUE TO HIGHER MEDIA ATTENTION AND POLICE PRESENCE

Question 12

example of moral panic by fawbert

Answer 12

hoodies at bluewater

• a few incidents of stealing in bluewater were committed by people wearing hoodies
• media headlines about the stealing in all newspapers
• hoodies banned at bluewater due to panic

prior to the incident media didn’t focus on hoodies but within a few weeks it headlined all newspapers

• deviance amplification= hoodies sales in bluewater blew up

Question 13

according to Triplett hows does the criminal justice system label?

Answer 13

• in the USA there is an increasing tendency to see young offenders as evil and be less tolerant of minor offenses
• the CJS has re-labeled states offences like truancy as more serious which serious punishment
• as lamers predicted this led to an increase in offending especially with youth violence and deviant careers

Question 14

what ways do labelling theories believe will reduce deviance

Answer 14

• decriminalise soft drugs
• avoid public shaming so the offender doesnt see themselves as an outsider
• reintergrative shaming

Question 15

what is reintegrative shaming?

Answer 15

labels the act but not the actor. avoids stigmatizing the offender as evil while still emphasising the negative impact of the actions

Question 16

criticism of tripplet

Answer 16

emphasis on the negative effects of labeling creates a victim status for the perpetrator. realist sociologists belive that this ignored the real victims of the crimes

Question 17

what is restorative justice

Answer 17

the victim and the offender meeting to get answers, closure and understand of the crime

for examples, Jacob Dunne met the parents of the boy he murdered where he vowed to change his life around getting grades and have a better life

Question 18

positive evaluations

Answer 18

• shows the law is not fixed but socially constructed
• examines how laws are applied in discriminatory ways
• controlling deviance can cause more

Question 19

negative evaluations

Answer 19

• too deterministic assumes once labelled a person will inevitably commit crime
• gives the criminal a ‘victim status’ while ignoring real ictimes
• Marxists argue that is doesn’t consider the source of the power applying labels