Interactionism theory

Cicourel- Typifications

• A stereotype that people hold, will lead police officers to focus on particular social groups.

• Crime rate will go up for those social groups as we will believe its them due to typification.

• Justice system is fixed but negotiable e.g. Lavinia Woodward- stabbed her boyfriend and was attending oxford.

• Law is applied differently in different circumstances and punishment is negotiable.

• Individuals that experience typification are more likely to take on stereotypes that are presented.

Lemert

• Primary deviance- acts which aren’t labelled as deviant by the public

• Secondary deviance- deviant acts and individuals that are labelled. Once an individual has been labelled, people may only see him according to master status (whereby a criminal is defined by their deviant act), which may lead to a deviant career because they struggle to find employment.

Interactionist main view

• Focus on the social construction of crime, whereby an act only becomes deviant when labelled as such, through societal reaction. However, not every deviant act or criminal is labelled and labelling theory is selectively enforced against some groups. Some sociologists believe labelling nay cause an individual to be defined by a master status.

Becker

• The social construction of crime- a deviant is someone who the label has been successfully applied to, and deviant behaviour is simply behaviour that people label as deviant. Those who are labelled are labelled based on gender, class and ethnicity.