The social construction of crime

Question 1

what do labelling theorists say about deviance?

Answer 1

no act is deviant in itself: deviance is simply a social construct

Question 2

Becker on social groups

Answer 2

social groups create deviance by creating rules and applying them to certain ppl who they label as ‘outsiders’. therefore, an act or a person only becomes deviant when labelled by others as deviant.

Question 3

what does differential enforcement state

Answer 3

social control agencies (police, courts etc) tend to label certain groups as criminal

Pilivian and Briar found police decisions to arrest were based on stereotypical ideas eg. gender, class, ethnicity

Question 4

Cicourel on typifications

Answer 4

police use typifications (stereotypes) of ‘typical delinquent’ individuals fitting the typification are more likely to be stopped, arrested and charged

Question 5

who’s more likely to be arrested?

Answer 5

WC and ethnic minority juveniles. once arrested, those from broken homes etc are more likely to be charged.

MC juveniles are less likely to fit the typifications and have parents who can negotiate for them: they are less likely to be charged.

Question 6

The social construction of crime statistics: a topic not a resource

Answer 6

WC ppl fit police typifications, so police patrol WC areas, so more WC arrests.

thus crime statistics recorded by police don’t give valid picture of crime patterns.

Cicourel argues that we can’t trust crime statistics. we should treat them as a topic not resource and investigate the process how they’re constructed.

Question 7

the dark figure

Answer 7

the dark figure is the difference between the official statistics and the ‘real’ rate of crime as we don’t rly know how much crime goes undetected, unreported and unrecorded.
therefore, some sociologists use victim surveys or self-report studies to gain a more accurate view.