Labelling / Interaction Flashcards
Becker
Societal reaction creates crime : rules are agreed within social groups as to what will be deemed deviant
Moral entrepreneurs : the most powerful in society are able to apply labels -> middle class (have status). This creates outsiders. The deviant is who the label has been successfully applied. Laws are made to deal with behaviour not approved of (e.g. ASBO’s)
Moral crusade : each outrage requiring action e.g. lockdown breaches, knife crime
Cicourel
Typification : police use ‘typification’s’ which influence arrests. These are a common sense shared stereotype of a typical criminal or delinquent.
Justice as a negotiation : Justice is not fixed, it is a negotiation. Middle class youths may be able to talk their way out of trouble with the police.
Working class youths fit the typification
Lemert
Primary Deviance: a deviant act which has not yet been labelled
Secondary Deviance: an act which has been labelled as deviant by societal reaction
Master Status: the controlling identity, overriding other characteristics
Deviant Career: the individual lives up to their master status
Jock Young
Hippies in Notting Hill
- Police see hippies as lazy drug addicts (labelling)
- Police action action against weed users makes them feel different and from this they unite together
- Weed users retreat into small groups
- Deviant norms and values develop, they grow their hair long and drug use becomes more of a central activity
S Cohen
he studied the mods and rockers subcultures of the 1960’s
the groups were identified by appearance and vehicles (motorbikes and scooters)
Media attention and moral panic
Moral panic = distorted public alarm
moral entrepreneurs = call for ‘crack downs’
Arrests, media reporting escalates the situation
Deviancy amplification = increased spiral of attention and behaviour
Folk Devils - those who are named as being the deviants
Braithwaite
Most labelling theorists are focused on labelling being a negative process. Braithwaite also considers the positive effect
2 types of Shaming
Disintegrative - Both the crime and the criminal are labelled as bad
Reintegrative - The behaviour is labelled as bad but not the person
Douglas
sees official stats as social constructions
Statistics are constructed and not fact
Fail to help us with meanings
Atkinson
Coroners have ideas about typical suicides
Determined by location, circumstances, life history - a subjective judgement rather than an objective fact
Lemert (MH)
studied paranoia
primary and secondary
labelling and master status
Goffman
asylums and institutions
mortification of self - internalise the label of inmate or show resistance
Mental Health
Mental illness is similarly a judgement made by doctors or experts based on what they know and think and previous cases.
It can be argued that a labelling process takes place - attaching the labels of schizophrenia or paranoia
Criticisms
There are similarities between Becker’s labelling views and previous views we have learnt
Marxist theory raises questions about who creates laws
Labelling turns out to be quite deterministic because it implies that being given a label means a person is a deviant. This overlooks the ignoring or rejecting of a label which some individuals would do - free will
It also tends to focus on only the visible, street crimes and is not applied to white collar or corporate crimes
labelling gives the offender victim status - the real victims are the actual victims
