crime and deviance: labelling

what do interactionists think about deviance

no act is deviant in itself, deviance is simply a social construct

who talks about typifications

cicourel

what are typifications

stereotypes

how do the police use typofications

‘typical delinquent’

individuals fitting the typification are more likely to be stopped arrested and charged

how do crime stats relate to typifications

W/C people fit the police typifications, so police patrol W/C areas, resulting in more W/C arrests

crime statistics recorded by the police don’t give a valid picture of crime patterns

whats the dark figure

difference between the official statistics and the ‘real’ rate of crime

what is lemerts argument

by labelling certain people as deviant, society actually encourages them to become more so, societal reaction causes ‘secondary deviance’.

what does youngs study of hippy marajuana users illistrate

Drug use was initially unimportant to the hippy’s life style (primary deviance)

police persecution of them as junkies (societal reaction)

led the hippies to retreat into closed groups, developing a deviant subculture where drug use became a central activity (SFP)

what is deviance amplification spiral

attempt to control deviance leads to it ‘increasing’

resulting in greater attempts to control it, and yet more deviance, in an escalating spiral, as it did with the hippies

what are Braithwaites two types of shaming

Disintegrative shaming

Reintegrative shaming

whats disintegrative shaming

not only the crime, but also the criminal, is labelled as bad

and the offender is excluded from society

whats reintegrative shaming

she has done a bad thing’, rather than she is a bad person