Topic 2 - Interactionist Theories

Question 1

Interactionist view of crime: [3]

Answer 1

• Believe crime is a social construct - an act only becomes deviant when labelled as such through societal reaction
• Not every deviant act is labelled, and labelling theory is selectively enforced against some groups
• Some sociologists believe labelling may cause an individual to be defined a master status

Question 2

Becker - Social construction of crime [2]

Answer 2

• Labels are based on gender, age and ethnicity

- A deviant is someone who a label has been successfully applied to

Question 3

Cicourel - Stereotypes of criminals [2]

Answer 3

• Officer’s typifications (stereotypes) of the typical criminal lead to them concentrating on types of people more likely to offend e.g. by patrolling working-class areas.
• Social Construction of crime statistics: Likely to be incorrect as officers less likely to convict m/c, ‘dark figure of crime’ unknown.

Question 4

Lemert - 2 types of deviance

Answer 4

Primary deviance - deviant acts that have not been publicly labelled as criminal.
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Secondary deviance - deviant acts and individuals that are labelled. Once an individual has been labelled, people may only see him according to his master status (whereby a criminal is defined by their deviant act), which may lead to a deviant career because they struggle to find employment.

• Attempts to control deviance can cause a deviancy amplification spiral e.g. ‘Mods and Rockers’ incident in Brighton - Cohen’s work on moral panics

Question 5

How can deviance be amplified by labelling according to Becker? [3]

Answer 5

• Once an offender is labeled they gain a master status e.g. druggie, pedo
• These offenders become stigmatized and often marginalized in society.
• Leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy + this alienation leads to more crime

Question 6

Criticisms of labelling theory [4]

Answer 6

-– It fails to explain why acts of primary deviance exist, focussing mainly on secondary deviance.
– It tends to be deterministic, not everyone accepts their labels
– It assumes offenders are just passive – it doesn’t recognise the role of personal choice in committing crime
– It gives the offender a ‘victim status’ – Realists argue that this perspective actually ignores the actual victims of crime.

Question 7

Braithwaite - Reintegrative Shaming [4]

Answer 7

He distinguishes between two types of shaming:

Reintegrative shaming - the crime and the criminal are labelled as bad
Disintegrative shaming - labels the act, but not the actor

Reintegrative shaming avoids stigmatizing the offender as evil, which makes it easier for the community to separate the offender from the offence and re-admit the offender into society