Labels Flashcards
Lemert
Chronic stuttering among Inuits (eskimos) in Canada
- pressure of being told not to stutter leads to more stuttering
Primary deviance
Rule breaking acts which have been labelled - little consequence on individual
Secondary deviance
The consequence of the societal reaction to primary deviance
What happens to a person when they are publicly labelled as deviant
People will respond to that individual according to the deviant label that has been attached
- becomes a part of their self-concept
- may lead to the ‘self- fulfilling prophecy’
Becker: master status
Personal labelled will be seen in terms of their label only
- becomes their master status
- may cause deviance amplification, individual joins a deviant subculture where the activity can be justified and supported
The deviant career
Negative label- self concept- label reinforced- master status- deviant career
Cicourel ( middle class)
Middle class youths able to negotiate their way out of trouble and parents can defend their child successfully
Media and deviance amplification
Media amplifies crime - demonises deviants and creates moral panics
- Stan Cohen: powerless groups identified as folk devils in an attempt to increase control of the deviance
Deviance amplification (steps)
- Group identified as deviant
- Media exaggerates creating moral panics
- Increased social reaction
- Secondary deviance
- Police and courts respond
- More causes found, evidence for concerns around folk devils
Jock Young: ‘the drug takers’ hippies in Notting hill
Marijuana use peripheral to the hippies lifestyle
- persecution and labelling by police led to hippies increasingly seeing themselves as outsiders
- they retreated into close groups and developed a deviant subculture
- not the act itself by societies reaction that creates serious deviance
‘The drug takers’
Jock young
Triplett
Increasing attempts to punish/ control young offenders have the opposite effect
Increasing attempts to punish/ control young offenders have the opposite effect
Triplett
If negative labelling pushes individuals toward a deviant career…
We should enforce fewer laws for people to break?
Braithewaite: shaming
- disintegrative shaming: the crime and the criminal is labelled as bad and the offender is excluded from society
- reintegration shaming labels the act but not the actor
- avoids stigmatising the offender as evil and makes them aware of negative impact of their actions - easier to reintegrate into society