Week 8 - Labeling and Control Theories Flashcards
Labeling/social reaction theory
Crime is socially constructed
Labels are differently applied
o Who applies the deviant label to whom?
o Who is establishing the rules?
o How are personal identities affected by authorities and societies categorization of people as offenders?
Crime created through labels
rooted in symbolic interactionism
symbolic interactionism - cooley, mead, blumer
o Communication is via symbols, context and subjective interpretations are important
o No single objective social reality exists – people respond to social understanding of reality
o Persons sense of self reconstructed around social interactions
o Given labels define whole person
o Status of social deviant affects treatment in various areas
criminal career formation
- In terms of destructive social interactions and encounters
- Stigmatization as an interaction process
- Role of control institutions – police, courts, corrections
crime and labelling theory
- Crime and deviance are defined by social audiences reaction
- Excusable or criminal act is a matter of legal definition
- Differential construction and enforcement of law reflects power relationships in society
o Affinity with macro social approach of conflict theory
Process of labeling
- Become labelled – social distance matters – farther from control sources = more likely to be caught
- Creation of stigma – degradation ceremonies of trial
- Self fulfilling prophecy
- Labels become basis of personal identity
Tannenbaum
- Community points of view
- Definition of specific act as evil to definition as individual as evil
o Good kids doing bad actions to bad kids - Occurs when youth are caught and labeled after first offence
- Tagging – defining – identifying – segregating – describing – emphasizing – making conscious/self-conscious
- Person becomes thing he is described as being
Lemert
- Social control causes deviance, not that deviance causes social control
- Primary and secondary deviance
- If caught and labeled – secondary
- Primary
o Occasional ,situational, excused - Secondary
o Serious, frequent, severe social reaction
o Incorporated new identity that is grounded in deviant lifestyle
Become drug dealer
labelling limitations
- Mixed review
- Ignores onset
- Does not explain desistance
- Fails to explain crime rate differences
- Many careers occur without labeling
- Arrest sometimes deters
labeling policy implications
- Diversion – don’t send people to prison
- Decriminalization
- Due process
- Deinstitutionalization
social control
- Informal social control – internal and external regulation
o Proper child rearing
o Positive socialization
o Institutional control
o Influence of others
early social control theories
Early social control
- Social contract- Hobbs
- Greed and collective conscience
o Durkheim
- Strong ego and superego – Freud
- Commitment/stakes in conformity – toby
- Family focused/types of control - Nye
Reckless’s containment theory
- Integrated
- External pressures and pulls to commit crime
o Poverty, unemployment, mass media - Outer containments
o Family, school, organizations - Inner containments
o Self-perception, norm retention - Individual level pushes
o Restlessness, rebellion
Matzas drift theory
- Strong controls
o Constant supervision and monitoring
o Younger, 10 - Weak controls
o Periods of drift due to less supervision and monitoring, no responsibilities
o Age 17-20 - Strong controls
o Increase in responsibility and obligations
o Age 30
hirschi’s social bond
- We are all capable of delinquency
- Attachment – emotional closeness – youth seek approval of parents
- Commitment – desire conventional success – stake in conformity
- Involvement – participation in activities – less idle time
- Beliefs – embrace law accepting values – beliefs restrain criminality
