The Social Construction Of Crime Flashcards
What do labelling theorists / interactionists believe about crime refer to social construction of crime ?
Labelling theorists are interested in how and why certain acts come to be defined or labelled as criminal in the first place , they argue that no act is inherently criminal or deviant in itself , in all situations and all times . In other words it is not the nature of the act that makes it deviant but the nature of society’s reaction to the act
What does Becker believe is a deviant ?
Becker argues that a deviant is simply someone to whom a label has been successfully applied to and deviant behaviour is simply behaviour that people so label
What are moral entrepreneurs / what do they do ?
Moral entrepreneurs are people who lead a moral crusade to change the law
What are the 2 effects that Becker argues happens due to moral entrepreneurs changing the laws ?
Becker argues due to moral entrepreneurs changing the law the 2 effects are ;
-the creation of a new group of outsiders - outlaws or deviants who break the new rule
-the creation or expansion of a social control agency such as police and courts who enforce the rules and impose labels of offenders
What did Platt argue the Victorian upper class moral entrepreneurs created due to their campaigns ?
Platt 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 at risk . This established juveniles as a separate category of offenders with their own courts and enabled the state to extend its powers beyond criminal offences involving the young into so called status offences where their behaviour is only an offence because of their age such as truancy and sexual promiscuity
What is an example of a law that the US federal bureau of narcotics passed that shows that social control agencies campaign for changes in law to increase their own power ?
The US federal Bureau of Narcotics successfully campaigned for the law of marijuana to be illegal . Supposedly this was on the grounds of its ill effects of young people but Becker argues that it is to extend the Bureaus sphere of influence
What are 3 main factors which impact if an individual who commits an offence is punished ?
- their interactions with agencies of social control
-their appearance and background
-the situation and circumstances of the offence
What did Piliavin and Briar find about who is likely to get labelled ?
Piliavin and briar found that police decisions to arrest a youth were mainly based on physical cues such as manner and dress from which they made judgements about the youths character . Officers decisions were also influenced by the suspects gender , class and ethnicity as well as as the time and place . For example , those stopped late at night in high crime areas ran a greater risk of arrest
What did Cicourel find that officers used to arrest individuals ?
Cicourel found that officers typifications - their common sense theories or stereotypes of what a typical delinquent is like led them to concentrate on certain types of
This resulted in law enforcement showing a class bias , in which working class areas and people fitted police typifications most closely which led the police to patrol working class areas more intensively resulting in more arrests and confirming their stereotypes
What did Cicourel believe was the impact of agents of control in the criminal justice system holding typifications - common sense theories of juvenile delinquency ?
Probation officers held the common sense theory that juvenile delinquency was caused by broken homes , poverty and lacked parenting , therefore probation officers saw youths from such backgrounds as likely to reoffend in the future so were less likely to to support non custodial sentences for them
How does Cicourel argue that justice is not fixed but negotiable ?
In Cicourels view , justice is not fixed but negotiable , for example when a middle class youth is arrested they are less likely to be charged , this is partly because their background didn’t fit the idea of the polices typical delinquent and partly because the parents will be more likely to be able to negotiate successfully on his behalf . As a result the middle class youth would be counselled , warned and released rather than prosecuted
Why does Cicourel argue that we cannot use official crime statistics recorded by the police as a resource but what should we use them as instead ?
Cicourel argues that official crime statistics recorded by the police do not give us a valid picture of the patterns of crime and cannot be used as a resource as aren’t facts about crime
Instead we should treat official statistics as a topic for sociologists to investigate
What is meant by the dark figure of crime ?
The dark figure of Crime is the difference between the official statistics and the real rate of crime because we do not know for certain how much crime goes undetected , unreported and unrecorded
How can victim surveys and self report studies give us a more valid picture of crime ?
Victim studies where people are asked what crimes they have been victims of or self report studies where they are asked what crimes they have committed can gain a more accurate view of the amount of crime
What are limitations of alternative statistics for getting a true picture of crime such as victim surveys and self report studies ?
People may forget , conceal or exaggerate when asked if they have committed a crime or been a victiom of one
Such surveys often only include a small selection of Generally less serious offences
