Youth Subcultures: Interactionism Flashcards
What do interactionists believe?
Deviance is socially constructed and mainstream society defines certain behaviour as deviant.
Who gets labelled by the police, media and public as deviant?
Young, working-class males get labelled, affecting how they are seen as how they are treated by others.
What does Becker argue?
Labelling relates to power.
Having power means you have the ability to make a label stick.
What does Becker say labelling can lead to?
Self fulfilling prophecy.
How does the media make labels stick?
- They will over report on deviant behaviour
- This makes it seem worse than it is.
- This causes the public to panic about this particular group and see them as a threat to society.
What did Cicourel carry out and find?
- Carried out observations with the police and criminal justice system in two US cities.
- He found the process of dealing with potential deviants had three stages.
What is stage 1 of Cicourel’s study?
Police stop and search an individual based on the police seeing their behaviour as ‘suspicious’ or ‘unusual’.
What is stage 2 of Cicourel’s study?
The police arrest the individual, which depends on the suspect’s appearance and manner/replies they give to the police.
What is stage 3 of Cicourel’s study?
The probation officer has a picture of the ‘typical delinquent’ and assess the suspect to see if they fit the profile.
What did Cicourel link to his study?
At each stage, the behaviour of the individual has an effect and Cicourel linked this to social class.
How did Cicourel say justice can be negotiated?
- If the individual was apologetic and polite, no further action may be taken.
- If parents come to the police station and tell the police it will not happen again and show themselves as a good family, the individual may not be charged.
What did Cicourel find out about the two cities?
Although the two cities were very similar in economic background and population, one city had constant high rates of juvenile delinquency, while the other city fluctuated depending on media publicity and public concern.
What did Cicourel conclude from his study?
That ‘delinquents’ are constructed by the agencies of social control and therefore socially constructed.
