CRM2302 uodated

Symbolic Interaction rests on the notion that...

- Humans act towards things based on the meanings those things have for them

- Meanings of things arise out of social interaction

- Meanings are created and changed through a process of interpretation

How do the meaning of things arise out of social interaction?

- Human interaction mediated by use of symbols and by interpretations

- Humans act towards things based on the meanings those things have for them (rooted in the socialization process)

- Meanings created and change through proccess of interpretation (society change, different symbols gained via different interpretive meanings

What does the term symbolic interaction refer to (in the words of Blumer)?

The peculiar and distinstive character of ineraction as it takes place between human beings. The peculiarity consists in the fact that human beings interpret or "define" each others actions instead of merely reacting to each others actions. Their "response" is mode made directly to the actions of one another but instead is based on the meaning which they attach such actions. Thus, human interaction is mediated by the use of symbols, by interpretation, or by asscertaining the meaning of one another's actions

What does Social Constructionism challange?

The world view that conventional knowledge is objective, unbaised observation of the world

- questioning things like why women/men are more concentrated in certain job spheres

- Asking questions and knowledge of how do we know what we do

- Knowledges produced and then passed along which makes it true

- Epidemiology

What does Social Construction take a critcal stance towards?

Our taken for granted ways of understanding the world, including ourselves

Example: Man and woman cetegories that are bound up with gender- Normative notion of masculinity and femininity in a culture

(Gender as a construct- Man and women to mean more then just sex)

What does Social Constructionism argue?

That the "creation of knowledge is rooted in social interaction between people through common language and shared meanings in particular contexts"

(Believe if you focus on how soical interactions and where they rise, you can pull them apart)

Example: "Illegal Alien"

A word used to describe undocumneted immigrants

- 1929 the word alien used in legislation in Canada

- There is power in the language you use. Words used creates interpretation for people such as fear, protective, anger, dehumanizing, etc

- It's actually not illegal to flee a country to enter another one that is a safer place (A right given to everyone by the UN via international law)

How is language important?

It is crucial in the interactions and creation of meanings attached to events, places, people, situations, etc

Example: Politcal speeches establishing meaning to create a narrative

Where do the ongoing creation of meanings occur and why are they important?

They occur in political, historical, economic, social and cultural environment

They are important for the social construction of knowledge and reality

Example: Political parties using things like catchphrases to push their agendas- the same messages over and over to associate those words with the party and influence others

How does the construction of knowledge get communicated?

Via different channels such as

- Laws

- Media

- Public opinion

It serves as a source of legitmation and justification

Example: People going onto the news and talking/showing only horrible crimes and saying crime is on the rise

- Creates the idea that crime is an increasing issue and fear surrounding it

The constructed knowledges becomes reality which then makes it

The "truth"

Messages however are not neutral

The creation of certain facts about people can lead to the harm of others via established truths

In Labelling Theory Deviance is...

Not a quality of the act, but rather a consequence of application by others of rules and cancation to an "Offender"

(No act is deviant in of itself, but the act of labelling which makes it so)

How are people placed on the "outside" in Labelling Theory?

Because their particular behaviour has been labelled as so by more powerful interest groups

- Postivist thought everyone shared the same norms so those who went against it would be pushed out and considered an outsider

- Behaviours only deviant because its against the norms

Becker focused on people relegated to the margins of socitey and found that...

- Socitey has many groups, each with their own set of rules and people belonged to many groups simultaneosuly

- Society has different groups, each with its own set of values

- Outsiders were the outside labeled group

Becker approached deviance from an occupational sociology approach and considered who?

Both those who "occupation" was deemed deviant/criminal as well as those who occupations was catching criminals (social audience, criminal justice system)

- A focus on the CJS as a whole

What is the Labelling Process according to Becker?

Society creates deviance and "outsiders" such as:

- Social groups create deviance by making rules whose infraction constiutes deviance (society: creates deviance, is not homogenous but heterogeneous)

- By applying those rules to partucular people and labelling them as an outsider

(We uphold and apply those rules to those who do not abide by them)

- Deviance is not a quality of the act the person commits, but rather a consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions to an "offender"

(Application of the consequneces we set aside for people who break the rules- devinace)

-The devient is the one whom that label has successfully been applied

- Deviant behaviour is behaviour that people so label

- It is the repose that matter for without it, deviant behaviour has not occurred

(Response is what matters)

How are outsiders chosen and labelled?

Via the degree to which people react to a given act as deviant varies greatly

- Varation over time (Things like heightened social attention on an issue)

- Characteristics of individual doing the act

- Response to victimization of some rather then others

Deviance is not a quality that lies in the behaviour itself but in the interaction between the person who commits an act and those who response to it

Symbolic Interaction rests on the notion that...

- Humans act towards things based on the meanings those things have for them

- Meanings of things arise out of social interaction

- Meanings are created and changed through a process of interpretation

How do the meaning of things arise out of social interaction?

- Human interaction mediated by use of symbols and by interpretations

- Humans act towards things based on the meanings those things have for them (rooted in the socialization process)

- Meanings created and change through proccess of interpretation (society change, different symbols gained via different interpretive meanings

What does the term symbolic interaction refer to (in the words of Blumer)?

The peculiar and distinstive character of ineraction as it takes place between human beings. The peculiarity consists in the fact that human beings interpret or "define" each others actions instead of merely reacting to each others actions. Their "response" is mode made directly to the actions of one another but instead is based on the meaning which they attach such actions. Thus, human interaction is mediated by the use of symbols, by interpretation, or by asscertaining the meaning of one another's actions

What does Social Constructionism challange?

The world view that conventional knowledge is objective, unbaised observation of the world

- questioning things like why women/men are more concentrated in certain job spheres

- Asking questions and knowledge of how do we know what we do

- Knowledges produced and then passed along which makes it true

- Epidemiology

What does Social Construction take a critcal stance towards?

Our taken for granted ways of understanding the world, including ourselves

Example: Man and woman cetegories that are bound up with gender- Normative notion of masculinity and femininity in a culture

(Gender as a construct- Man and women to mean more then just sex)

What does Social Constructionism argue?

That the "creation of knowledge is rooted in social interaction between people through common language and shared meanings in particular contexts"

(Believe if you focus on how soical interactions and where they rise, you can pull them apart)

Example: "Illegal Alien"

A word used to describe undocumneted immigrants

- 1929 the word alien used in legislation in Canada

- There is power in the language you use. Words used creates interpretation for people such as fear, protective, anger, dehumanizing, etc

- It's actually not illegal to flee a country to enter another one that is a safer place (A right given to everyone by the UN via international law)

How is language important?

It is crucial in the interactions and creation of meanings attached to events, places, people, situations, etc

Example: Politcal speeches establishing meaning to create a narrative

Where do the ongoing creation of meanings occur and why are they important?

They occur in political, historical, economic, social and cultural environment

They are important for the social construction of knowledge and reality

Example: Political parties using things like catchphrases to push their agendas- the same messages over and over to associate those words with the party and influence others

How does the construction of knowledge get communicated?

Via different channels such as

- Laws

- Media

- Public opinion

It serves as a source of legitmation and justification

Example: People going onto the news and talking/showing only horrible crimes and saying crime is on the rise

- Creates the idea that crime is an increasing issue and fear surrounding it

The constructed knowledges becomes reality which then makes it

The "truth"

Messages however are not neutral

The creation of certain facts about people can lead to the harm of others via established truths

In Labelling Theory Deviance is...

Not a quality of the act, but rather a consequence of application by others of rules and cancation to an "Offender"

(No act is deviant in of itself, but the act of labelling which makes it so)

How are people placed on the "outside" in Labelling Theory?

Because their particular behaviour has been labelled as so by more powerful interest groups

- Postivist thought everyone shared the same norms so those who went against it would be pushed out and considered an outsider

- Behaviours only deviant because its against the norms

Becker focused on people relegated to the margins of socitey and found that...

- Socitey has many groups, each with their own set of rules and people belonged to many groups simultaneosuly

- Society has different groups, each with its own set of values

- Outsiders were the outside labeled group

Becker approached deviance from an occupational sociology approach and considered who?

Both those who "occupation" was deemed deviant/criminal as well as those who occupations was catching criminals (social audience, criminal justice system)

- A focus on the CJS as a whole

What is the Labelling Process according to Becker?

Society creates deviance and "outsiders" such as:

- Social groups create deviance by making rules whose infraction constiutes deviance (society: creates deviance, is not homogenous but heterogeneous)

- By applying those rules to partucular people and labelling them as an outsider

(We uphold and apply those rules to those who do not abide by them)

- Deviance is not a quality of the act the person commits, but rather a consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions to an "offender"

(Application of the consequneces we set aside for people who break the rules- devinace)

-The devient is the one whom that label has successfully been applied

- Deviant behaviour is behaviour that people so label

- It is the repose that matter for without it, deviant behaviour has not occurred

(Response is what matters)

How are outsiders chosen and labelled?

Via the degree to which people react to a given act as deviant varies greatly

- Varation over time (Things like heightened social attention on an issue)

- Characteristics of individual doing the act

- Response to victimization of some rather then others

Deviance is not a quality that lies in the behaviour itself but in the interaction between the person who commits an act and those who response to it

What Is Theory

A set of interconnected statements/propositions that explain how two or more events/factors relate to one another

What Do Criminological Theories Provide?

Tentative explainations as to why crimes are committed, who commits them and about the formal/informal social control systems

Focused on the conditions under which people commit crime and the systems

What are the two types of Criminological Theories?

Theories of Law and Criminal Justice (Law Scholars)

Theories of Criminal and Deviant Behaviour (Crm Scholars)

Theories of Law and Criminal Justice

Used to explain the making and enforcing criminal law

Deals with law and how its created, who decides what is "normal" and what is criminal behaviour

Law itself produces normality in society/status quo but also creates outliers and what's deviant

Theories of Criminal and Deviancy

Composed of

- Macro/Structural (Major groups of people)

- Mirco/Processual

(Small groups of people, sometimes individuals)

Criteria for Evaluating Theory

- Logical Consistency

- Scope

- Parsimony

- Testability

- Empirical Validity

- Usefulness and policy implications

What are some examples of the social, cultural, and political context's in 1960's USA that allowed the emergance of Labelling Theory and other Criminological thoughts?

- Civil rights moement

- Civil rights act 1964

- Voting rights act of 1964

- Assassination of Kennedy

- Martin Luther King

- Malcolm X

- Black Panthers

- Woemns rights movement

- Protest and roits against Vietnam war

- Attica 1971

- "Youth Culture"

Who Founded Symbolic Interactionism?

Blumer, but he credited Herbert Mead

Emergence of Labelling Theory is rooted in what?

Symbolic Interactionism

Labelling Thoery is considered not a thoery but a

Paradigm

When was the labelling perspective introduced?

1960's and 70's

Labelling Perspective Challenged what line of thinking?

Postivist Criminology (Bio, Psy, and Soc- all of which were rooted in determinism and traced the causes of crime to the individual and the environment)

What did the Labelling Perspective aruge about crime?

- Not an "objective" phenomenon but subjective. Meaning is given to a particular behaviour

- A social process (meanings given to events depended on negotiated definitions)

-The outcome of human interaction

The rise of the labelling perspectives accompanied critiques of what parts of the dominate image of Western Society in the 1950's?

- Society shares collective interest

- There is a consenus is a society on core values such as gender dynamics, religion, individualism, economic, common standards of deviance and conformity, idea of the nuclear family and more

What historical developments were societal reaction theories influenced by?

- Social Psychology

- Phenomenology: Sociological approach in seeking to reveal how human awareness is implicated in the production of social actions, situations and words

-Ethnomethodology: Study of people's practices and methods (how social world is built and rebuilt by people's actions and throughts)

Societal Reaction Theories are said to be apart of what kind of criminology?

Critical Criminology

Being a part of Critical Criminology, Social Reaction Theories do what?

- Provide a critique of orthodox of mainstream criminology theories (Critique of deterministic nature of pos and clas. theories)

-Have anti-essentialist conception of human identity, including deviant identity (no intrisnic quality, meaning of things change throughout time and place, focus on social construction and roles, deviance as product of social construction)

-Have an ideoloigcal view that deviance and its control are inextricably linked to power dynamics in society

What does Blumer outline the compents of Symbolic interaction as based on Herbert Mead?

- Human being has a self (numerous messages daily and development via messages that form the self)

- Acts towards the self/making indcations to oneself is the central mechanism which human being faces and deals with the world (Messages inside and outside, socialization process make us aware of the stimulus around us, we make a point and indication that we are aware of it and create the self)

- Indication refers to taking notations of the stimuli (creation of symbols, language, gesters, etc)

-Indication via extricating it from its setting, to give it meaning or make it into an object

-Object is the procut of the indvidual dispoistion to the act (the process of interpretation) meaning is given to the intreptation of the stimuli construct the object

Stimuli vs Object

Stimuli: Indications that come to the self

- Looking at the people as you communicate and taking notice/making indications to the self of the communcations you are seeing

Object: Turns the stimuli into something for youself

- Pulling it from the setting and giving it meaning (defining the stimuli which turns it into an object)

The process:

Interpreting the symbol, taking the stimuli, attaching meaning (now an object), react to the stimuli and respond

Example: seeing someone yawn

- May assume they are tired or bored, this is turned into an object now

What is the Concept of the "I" as described by Mead (Blumer used self)

- That the authentic "I" doesn't exist, the "I" only develops through things like cultural norms, values, via the interaction of others

- Doesn't exist in symbolic interactionism (There's nothing hidden inside of us)

- The "I" is a reflection of the product of socialization you receive (Via community, family, friends, school, ect.)

- We become similar sometimes when it comes ot big symbols like norms, culture, rules, etc. due to the soicalization process

What is the self?

How one sees themselves (is depended on how others perceive us)

What is the mechanism of the self?

The process of interpretation

What are two important aspects of the "I" by mead?

- The recognition that roles and rules play a critical part in the formation of the "self"

- Self interpret the roles and rule and reacts to them and acting back on the enviroment/society

(Reaction itself becomes a stimuli for others to interpret and make into an object)

How do individuals respond to siutations?

By reading the symbols around them

- Symbols can be determined even just by observation

- Reality is being constructed as you interact with others

- There are things you don't realize are symbols as the interpretation has happened so many times it has become a part of us

If the self is not simply responding to events, how is it built?

Through social interactions (the self can also be rebuilt and readjusted_)

Collective construction of reality is done into?

Typifications

- Symbols clustered into meanings (Or message) in society that we are aware of whihc forms the bases of knowledge and how reality is constructed

The real world isn't object, concreate reaility but is consturcted on the bases of symbols, interpretations, actions, and reactions

How do human beings role-play by taking on the role of "the other"?

Refering to group reaction, people listen to the stimuli around them

Example: Having people in class interrupting means you are more likely to have more people doing the same

Things like peer pressure is also a part of the role-play