Labelling Theories of Crime and Deviance Flashcards
Outline Lemert’s Labelling Processes
1) Primary Deviance
No label attached by wider society- only deviant knows act was committed so no consequences.
2) Secondary Deviance
Deviant act is witnessed and displayed in wider society
Outline Cicourel’s negotiation of justice
Officer’s decisions to arrest are influenced by stereotypes about offenders.
Officers have typifications or stereotypes on what a deviant looks like and concentrate on those types of deviants.
Result in law enforcement showing class bias in w/c areas (higher conc. of police monitoring) which results in more arrests and confirms those stereotypes
Justice is not fixed but negotiable based on typifications and stereotypes.
Outline the social construction of crime
At each stage of CJS, agents of social control make the decision whether or not to proceed to the next step and tthe outcome most likely depends on labels attached
Stats only tell us the activities of police nd prosecutors rather than the amount of crime in society/ who actually commits it. They reflect the decisions made by the agents of social control at each gate.
Dark figure of crime= the difference between real crime and official crime stats- ‘unrecorded’ crime
Alternative stats: victim surveys, self report studies
Outline the Relativity of Crime and Deviance (Becker)
1) Contextual i.e Nudity
2) Historical i.e Homosexuality
3) Cultural i.e Alcohol in Saudi Arabia vs UK
4) Generational i.e norms vary between age groups
Who are moral entrepreneurs?
People who lead a moral campaign to change laws.
2 effects:
1) New marginalised group (of deviants) which break another set of rules
2) Creation/ expansion of social control agency i.e police
Outline the 3 consequences of labelling
1) SFP- internalise label and act in the way they have been labelled
2) Deviancy Amplification Spiral (Cohen) - control of deviance leads to greater amount of deviance i.e calling for a crackdown, creation of folk devils
3) Master Status- Criminal becomes the identifier and impacts how one is treated within society.
Evaluate the strengths of labelling theory
1) Emphasizes the social construction of crime and deviance
2) Identifies/ reveals role of the powerful in crime and deviance
3) Shows how deviant careers can be established
