Sociology-crime-interactionism and labelling theory

Question 1

What are labelling theorists interested in, in relation to crime?

Answer 1

They are interested in how and why certain acts come to be defined as criminal in the first place, as they argue that no act is inherently criminal or deviant in itself, in all situations and at all times. Instead it only comes to be so when others label it as such

Question 2

What does Becker say about crime and deviance?

Answer 2

Social groups create deviance by creating the rules whose infraction constitutes deviance, and by applying those rules to particular people and labelling them as outsiders

Question 3

What is a deviant, according to Becker?

Answer 3

Someone to whom the label has been successfully applied, and deviant behaviour is simply behaviour that people so label

Question 4

What interests labelling theorists about rules/laws?

Answer 4

They look at how and why rules and laws get made. They are particularly interested in the role of what Becker calls moral entrepreneurs

Question 5

What are moral entrepreneurs?

Answer 5

These are people who lead a moral ‘crusade’ to change the law

Question 6

What does two effects does Bercker argue that this new law invariably has?

Answer 6

The creation of a new group of ‘outsiders’-outlaws or deviants who break the new rule. Also the creation or expansion of a social control agency (such as the police, courts, probation officers etc) to enforce the rules and impose labels on offenders

Question 7

What does Platt argue?

Answer 7

Argues that the idea of ‘juvenile delinquency’ was originally created as a result of a campaign by upper-class Victorian moral entrepreneurs, aimed at protecting young people. This established ‘juveniles’ as a separate category of offender with their own courts, and it enabled the state to extend its powers beyond criminal offences involving the young, into so called ‘status offences’

Question 8

What is a status offence?

Answer 8

Where their behaviour is only an offence because of their age, such as truancy and sexual promiscuity

Question 9

What does Becker note about social control agencies?

Answer 9

They themselves may also campaign for a change in the law to increase their own power. For example, the US Federal Bureau of Narcotics successfully campaigned for passing of the Marijuana Tax Act 1937 to outlaw marijuana use. Supposedly this was on the grounds of its ill effects on young people but Becker argues it was to extend the Bureau’s sphere of influence

Question 10

What does the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and the Marijuana Tax Act show?

Answer 10

It is not the inherent harmfulness of a particular behaviour that leads to new laws being created, but rather the efforts of powerful individuals and groups to redefine the behaviour as unacceptable

Question 11

Why does not everyone that commits an offence get punished for it?

Answer 11

Whether a person is arrested, charged and convicted depends on factors such as, their interactions with agencies of social control, their appearance/background/personal biography, and the situation/circumstances of the offence

Question 12

What do labelling theorists look at, regarding who gets labelled?

Answer 12

They look at how the laws are applied and enforced. Their studies show that agencies of social control are more likely to label certain groups of people as deviant or criminal

Question 13

What did Piliavin and Briar find?

Answer 13

Police decision to arrest a youth were mainly based on physical cues, such as manner and dress, from which they made judgements about the youth’s character. Officers’ decisions were also influenced by the suspect’s gender, class and ethnicity, as well as by time and place, eg those stopped late at night in high crime areas ran a greater risk of arrest. Similarly, studies of anti-social behaviour found they were disproportionately used against ethnic minorities

Question 14

What did Cicourel find, linked to the fact that officers’ decisions to arrest are influenced by their stereotypes about offenders?

Answer 14

Officers’ typifications (commonsense theories or stereotypes of what the typical delinquent is like) led them to concentrate on certain ‘types’. This resulted in law enforcement showing a class bias, in that working class areas and people fitted the police typifications most closely, and so they patrol working class areas more intensively, resulting in more arrests, confirming their stereotypes

Question 15

What did cicourel also find about agencies of social control?

Answer 15

Other agents of social control within the criminal justice system reinforced this bias, eg probation officers held the commonsense theory that juvenile delinquency was caused by broken homes, poverty and lax parenting. They tended to see youths from such backgrounds as likely to offend in future and were less likely to support non-custodial sentences for them

Question 16

What does cicourel say about justice?

Answer 16

It is not fixed, it is negotiable. Eg when a middle class youth is arrested, he is less likely to be charged-partly due to not fitting the police’s ‘typical delinquent’ and partly as his parents are more likely to be able to negotiate successfully on his behalf, convincing agencies that he was sorry and they would monitor him so he would not get in trouble again. As a result he was typically ‘counselled, warned and released’

Question 17

What does cicourel’s study have implications for?

Answer 17

It has implications for the use we make of official crime statistics recorded by the police. He argues that these statistics don’t give a valid picture of the patterns of crime and cannot be used as a resource (as facts about crime). Instead they should be treated as a topic for sociologists to investigate

Question 18

How should crime statistics be studied?

Answer 18

They shouldn’t be taken at face value, and instead, the process on how they are created should be investigated, to shed light on the activities of the control agencies and how they process and label certain types of people as criminal

Question 19

How do interactionists see official crime statistics?

Answer 19

They see them as socially constructed. At each stage of the criminal justice system, agents of social control make decisions about whether or not to proceed to the next stage. The outcome depends on the label they attach to the individual suspect or defendant in the course of their interactions. This label is likely to be affected by the typifications or stereotypes they hold about him or her

Question 20

If crime statistics or socially constructed, what do they tell us?

Answer 20

Statistics produced by the criminal justice system only tell us about the activities of the police and prosecutors rather than about the amount of crime in society or who commits it. The statistics are really just counts of the decisions made by control agents at the different ‘decision gates’ of the justice system

Question 21

What is the dark figure of crime?

Answer 21

The difference between the official statistics and the ‘real’ rate of crime is sometimes called the dark figure as we don’t know for certain how much crime goes undetected, unreported or unrecorded

Question 22

What are alternative statistics?

Answer 22

Some sociologists use victim surveys or self report studies to gain a more accurate view of the amount of crime. These can add to our picture of crime, but they still have several limitations, eg people may forget, conceal or exaggerate when asked if they have committed or been a victim to crime. Also such surveys usually only include a selection of (generally less serious) offences

Question 23

What does Lemert distinguish between?

Answer 23

Primary and secondary deviance

Question 24

What is primary deviance?

Answer 24

It refers to deviant acts that have not been publicly labelled. Lemert argues that it’s pointless to seek causes of primary deviance as it is so widespread that it’s unlikely to have a single cause and in any case is often trivial eg fare dodging, and goes uncaught. These acts are not part of an organised deviant way of life, so offenders can easily rationalise them away, eg as a moment of madness, and they have little significance for their status or self concept (they don’t see themselves as deviant)

Question 25

What is secondary deviance?

Answer 25

Some deviance is labelled. Secondary deviance is the result of society reaction (labelling). Being caught and publicly labelled as a criminal can involve being stigmatised, shamed, humiliated, shunned or excluded from normal society. After this, others may only see them in terms of their label-this becomes their master status

Question 26

What is master status?

Answer 26

Someones master status is their controlling identity, overriding all others. In the eyes of the world, they are no longer a colleague, parent, or neighbour; they are now a thief or murderer etc- an outsider

Question 27

What happens when being deviant becomes someones master status?

Answer 27

It can provoke a crisis for the individual’s self concept or sense of identity. One way to resolve this is for the individual to accept the deviant label and then see themselves as the world sees them. This can lead to a self fulfilling prophecy where the individual acts out or lives up to their deviant label, and fulfilling it. Lamert refers to the further deviance that results from acting out the label as secondary deviance

Question 28

How can secondary deviance lead to a deviant career?

Answer 28

Secondary deviance is likely to provoke further hostile reactions from society and reinforce the deviant’s ‘outsider’ status. Again, this in turn may lead to more deviance and a deviant career. Eg An ex convict finds it hard to go straight to get a job as no one will employ him, so he seeks out other outsiders for support. This may involve joining a deviant subculture that offers deviant career opportunities, role models, rewards for deviant behaviour, and this then confirms his deviant identity

Question 29

What did Young find in his study of hippy marijuana users in Notting Hill?

Answer 29

He uses the concepts of secondary deviance. Initially, drugs were peripheral to hippies’ lifestyle- an example of primary deviance. However, persecution and labelling by the control culture (police) led the hippies increasingly to see themselves as outsiders. They retreated into closed groups where they began to develop a deviant subculture, wearing longer hair and more ‘way out’ clothes. Drug use became a central activity, attracting further attention from police and creating a self fulfilling prophecy

Question 30

What does the work of Lemert and Young illustrate?

Answer 30

The idea that it is not the act itself, but the hostile societal reaction to it, that creates serious deviance. Ironically therefore, the social control processes that are meant to produce abiding behaviour may in fact produce the very opposite

Question 31

What, however, do Downes and Rock note?

Answer 31

we cannot predict whether someone who has been labelled will follow a deviant career, because they are always free to choose not to deviate further. Although a deviant career is a common outcome of labelling, labelling theorists not it is not inevitable

Question 32

What is the deviance amplification spiral?

Answer 32

It is a term labelling theorists use to describe a process in which the attempt to control deviance leads to an increase in the level of deviance. This leads to greater attempts to control it and, in turn, this produces higher levels of deviance. More and more control produces more and more deviance, in an escalating spiral eg the hippies described by Young

Question 33

What is another example of labelling theorists applying the concept of the deviance amplification spiral to various forms of group behaviour?

Answer 33

Cohen’s Folk Devils and Moral Panics, a study of the societal reaction to the ‘mods and rockers’ disturbances involving groups of youths at English seaside resorts

Question 34

How did the moral panic and amplification spiral start, according to Cohen?

Answer 34

Press exaggeration and distorted reporting of events began a moral panic, with growing public concern and with moral entrepreneurs calling for a ‘crackdown’. Police responded by arresting more youths and the courts imposed higher penalties. This confirmed truth of the original media reaction and provoked more public concern, in an upward spiral of deviance amplification. The demonising of mods and rockers as Folk Devils caused further marginalisation as outsiders, resulting in more deviant behaviour on their part

Question 35

How is the deviance amplification spiral similar to Lemert’s idea of secondary deviance?

Answer 35

In both cases, the societal reaction to an initial deviant act leads not to successful control of the deviance, but to further deviance, which in turn leads to a greater reaction and so on

Question 36

How does secondary deviance and the amplification spiral illustrate an important difference between labelling theory and functionalist theories of deviance?

Answer 36

As Lemert puts it, these (functionalist) theories “rest heavily on the idea that deviance leads to social control, I have come to believe the reverse idea, i.e. social control leads to deviance”

Question 37

What are folk devils and the dark figure?

Answer 37

Folk devils are in a sense the opposites of the dark figure of crime. While the dark figure is about unlabelled, unrecorded crime that is ignored by the public and police, folk devils and their actions are ‘over labelled’ and over exposed to public view, and the attentions of the authorities. In terms of law enforcement and the justice system, the pursuit of folk devils draws resources away from detecting and punishing crimes that make up the dark figure, such as crimes of the powerful

Question 38

What does Triplett note?

Answer 38

An increasing tendency to see young offenders as evil and to be less tolerant of minor deviance. The criminal justice system has ‘re labelled’ status offences such as truancy as more serious offences, resulting in much harsher sentences. As predicted by Lemert’s theory of secondary deviance, this has resulted in an increase rather than decrease in offending

Question 39

What does De Haan note?

Answer 39

He notes a similar outcome in Holland as a result of the increasing stigmatisation of young offenders

Question 40

What do findings, such as the ones by Triplett and De Haan indicate?

Answer 40

That labelling theory has important policy implications. They add weight to the argument that negative labelling pushes offenders towards a deviant career. Therefore logically, to reduce deviance, we should make and enforce fewer rules for people to break

Question 41

What is an example of how deviance may be reduced by enforcing fewer rules?

Answer 41

By decriminalising soft drugs, we might reduce the number of people with criminal convictions and also then the risk of secondary deviance

Question 42

What else does labelling theory imply would reduce deviance?

Answer 42

Avoid publicly ‘naming and shaming’ offenders, as this is likely to create a perception of them as evil outsiders and, by excluding them from mainstream society, push them into further deviance

Question 43

Although most labelling theorists see labelling as having negative effects, what does Braithwaite identify?

Answer 43

He identifies a more positive role for the labelling process, and distinguishes between two types of shaming (negative labelling): disintegrative shaming and reintegrative shaming

Question 44

What is disintegrative shaming?

Answer 44

Where not only the crime, but also the criminal is labelled as bad and the offender is excluded from society

Question 45

What is reintegrative shaming?

Answer 45

By contrast, it labels the act but not the actor. “he has done a bad thing”, rather than “he is a bad person”

Question 46

How can reintegrative shaming have positive effects?

Answer 46

The policy avoids stigmatising the offender as evil while at the same time making them aware of the negative impact of their actions upon others, and then encourages others to forgive them. This makes it easier for both offender and community to separate the offender from the offence and re admit the wrongdoer back into mainstream society. This, at the same time, avoids pushing hem into secondary deviance

Question 47

What does Braithwaite argue about reintegrative shaming policies?

Answer 47

Crime rates tend to be lower in societies where reintegrative rather than disintegrative shaming is the dominant way of dealing with offenders

Question 48

What does Durkheim say about suicide?

Answer 48

He studied it with the aim of showing that sociology is a science. Using official statistics, he claimed to have discovered the causes of suicide in how effectively society integrated individuals and regulated their behaviour

Question 49

What do interactionists say about Durkheim’s view of suicide?

Answer 49

They reject Durkheim’s positivist approach and his reliance on official statistics. They argue that to understand suicide, we must study its meanings for those who choose to kill themselves

Question 50

What approach does Douglas take to explaining suicide?

Answer 50

He takes an interactionist approach. He is critical of the use of official suicide statistics for the same reasons as interactionists distrust official crime statistics. Both are socially constructed and tell us about the activities of the people who construct them, such as the police (in terms of crime) and coroners (in the case of suicide), rather than the real rate of crime of suicide in society

Question 51

What is an example of how official suicide statistics are socially constructed?

Answer 51

Whether a death comes to be officially labelled as suicide rather than eg an accident or homicide, depends on the interactions and negotiations between social actors such as the coroner, relatives, friends, doctors etc. For instance, relatives may feel guilty about failing to prevent the death and press for a verdict of misadventure rather than suicide. Similarly, a coroner with strong religious beliefs that suicide is a sin may be reluctant to bring in a suicide verdict

Question 52

What does it mean for suicide statistics if they are socially constructed?

Answer 52

They therefore tell us nothing about the meanings behind an individuals decision to commit suicide. If we want to understand their meanings, Douglas argues we must use qualitative methods such as the analysis of suicide notes, or unstructured interviews with the deceased’s friends and relatives, or with people who have survived a suicide attempt. This would allow us to ‘get behind’ the labels coroners attach to deaths and discover their true meanings

Question 53

What does Atkinson argue?

Answer 53

He agrees that official statistics are merely a record of the labels coroners attach to deaths, and agues that it is impossible to know for sure what meanings the dead gave to their deaths

Question 54

What does Atkinson focus on, in relation to suicide>

Answer 54

He focuses on the taken for granted assumptions that coroners make when reaching their verdicts. He found that their ideas about a ‘typical suicide’ were important; certain modes of death eg hanging, location and circumstances of the death, and life history eg recent bereavement were seen as typical suicides. One coroner said that if the deceased had taken more than ten sleeping pills, “I can be almost sure it was a suicide”

Question 55

How can Atkinson’s approach be used against him?

Answer 55

If he is correct that all we can do is have interpretations of the social world, rather than real facts about it (such as how many deaths are really suicide), then his account is no more than an interpretation and there is no good reason to accept it

Question 56

How do interactionists respond to mental illness?

Answer 56

As with crime and suicide, they reject official statistics on mental illness because they regard these as social constructs. They are simply a record of the activities of those such s psychiatrists with the power to attach labels such as ‘schizophrenic’ or ‘paranoid’ to others. Crime, suicide and mental illness statistics are artefacts (things made by humans), not objective social facts

Question 57

What are interactionists interested in, in terms of mental illness?

Answer 57

They are interested in how a person comes to be labelled as mentally ill, and in the effects of this labelling. An example is Lamert’s study of paranoia

Question 58

What was found by Lamert’s study of paranoia?

Answer 58

He notes that some individuals don’t fit easily into groups. As a result of this primary deviance, others label the person as odd and begin to exclude them. Their negative response to this is the beginning of their secondary deviance, and gives others further reason to exclude them. They may start discussing the bet way of dealing with the difficult person. This seems to confirm the persons suspicions that people are conspiring against them. The reaction justifies their fears for their mental health and my lead to psychiatric intervention, an official label and they may be placed in hospital against their will

Question 59

What happens after psychiatric intervention?

Answer 59

The label ‘mental patient’ becomes their master status and so anything they say or do will be interpreted in this way

Question 60

What is an example of the master status of ‘mental patient’?

Answer 60

Rosenhan’s pseudo patient experiment in which researchers had themselves admitted to a number of hospitals claiming they had been hearing voices. They were diagnosed as schizophrenic and this became their master status. Despite then acting normally, they were treated by staff as mentally ill eg the pseudo patients kept notes of their experiences, but staff saw it as a symptom if their illness

Question 61

What does Goffman’s classic study, Asylum, show?

Answer 61

It shows some possible effects of being admitted to a ‘total institution’ such as a psychiatric hospital

Question 62

What did Goffman find?

Answer 62

On admission, the inmate undergoes a ‘mortification of the self’ in which their old identity is symbolically ‘killed off’ and replaced by a new one: ‘inmate’. This is achieved by various ‘degradation rituals’ such as confiscation of personal effects. Goffman notes the similarities with other total institutions such as prisons, armies, monasteries and boarding schools

Question 63

What does Goffman show about the inmates responses to institutionalisation?

Answer 63

While some inmates became institutionalised, internalising their new identity and unable to readjust to the outside world, others adopt various forms of resistance or accommodation to their new situation

Question 64

What is an example of Goffman’s findings?

Answer 64

Braginski et al’s study of long term psychiatric patients. They found that inmates manipulated their symptoms so as to appear ‘not well enough’ to be discharged, but ‘not sick enough’ to be confined to the ward. As a result they were able to achieve their aim of free movement around the hospital

Question 65

What is a summary of labelling theory?

Answer 65

It shows that the law is not a fixed set of rules, to be taken for granted, but something whose constrution we need to explain. It shows that the law is often enforced in discriminatory ways, and that crime statistics are more a record of the activities of control agents than of criminals. It also shows that society’s attempt so control deviance can backfire and create more deviance, not less

Question 66

What are the (7) criticisms of labelling theory ?

Answer 66

Deterministic (once labelled, a deviant career is inevitable). Emphasis on negative effects of labelling gives the offender a victim status (realist sociologists say this ignores the real victims of crime). Tends to focus on less serious crimes eg drugs. Assume offenders are passive victims of labelling ignoring free will and choice in offending. Fails to explain why people commit primary deviance in the first place (pre-labelling). It implies that without labelling, deviance would not exist meaning someone who commits a crime but isn’t labelled has not deviated? It recognises the role of power in creating deviance but fails to analyse the source of the power so focuses on ‘middle range officials’ such as police, rather than the capitalist class, and also fail in explaining the origin of the labels/why they are applied to certain groups eg working class