Topic 2 Flashcards
What did Cicourel do?
Examined reaction to deviant behaviours in different areas of California.
What did Cicourel find?
Found that the middle-class were able to negotiate the justice system better than the working-class so they were less likely to be charged.
What did he find about officer’s typifications?
Found officers held stereotypes on what they typical delinquent is like, this led them to concentrate on certain types.
Resulted in law enforcement showing a class bias, working-class areas and people fitted their stereotypes leading the police to patrol these areas more and leading to more working-class arrests.
What does Cicourel say about justice?
Justice is not fixed but negotiable.
What is a case study that supports Cicourel’s argument?
In 2005, Brock Turner (middle class) was found guilty of sexually assaulting a girl at Stanford University. He had his parents negotiate the justice system. His parents stood up in court and suggested his life should not be ruined for ‘20 minutes of action’. He received only a 6 month sentence of which he only served 3 months (maximum sentence was 14 years).
What does Cicourel think about official crime statistics?
He argues that these statistics do not give us a valid picture of the patterns of crime and cannot be used as a resource. He believes we shouldn’t take them at face value and should investigate the processes that created them.
What are limitations of Cicourel’s argument?
He assumes that all members of the justice system label delinquents in the same way rather than by judging cases of their individual merits.
He also offers a limited explanation of why crime is committed in the first place, focuses on the perceptions of criminality within the justice system.
