Interactionism/Labelling Theory

How does Becker argue deviance is socially constructed?

• moral entrepreneurs lead moral crusade to change law

• creates new group of outsiders (deviants)

• creates/expands social control agency (e.g. police, courts) to enforce rule + impose labels

What does Platt say about juvenile delinquency?

originally created due to campaign of Victorian upper-class moral entrepreneurs to protect young people at risk = juvenile as separate category of offender = ‘status offences’ (only an offence due to age, e.g. sexual promiscuity, truancy)

How does Becker argue social control agencies change law to increase their own power?

US Federal Bureau of Narcotics campaigned for Marijuana Tax Act 1937 to outlaw marijuana to extend sphere of influence

What did Piliavin and Briar find about police decisions to arrest youths?

mainly based on physical cues (e.g. manner, dress), also influenced by class/gender/ethnicity + time/place of incident (e.g. stopped late at night in high crime area = greater risk of arrest), ASBO disproportionately used against EM

What did Cicourel find about officer typifications?

people in w/c areas more likely to fit typifications = more police patrol in w/c areas = more arrests

How does Cicourel argue that other agents of social control in CJS reinforce bias?

probation officers believe juvenile delinquency caused by broken homes, poverty + lax parenting, less likely to support non-custodial sentences for youths fitting commonsense theory

Why does Cicourel argue justice is negotiable?

when m/c youth arrested, less likely to be charged as don’t fit ‘typical delinquent’ as parents better able to negotiate = ‘counselled, warned and released’ rather than prosecuted

Why do Interactionists see official stats as socially constructed?

• agents of social control make decisions on whether to proceed at each stage of CJS

• stats = counts of decisions made by control agents at each ‘decision gate’ in CJS

What is the dark figure of crime?

difference between official stats and real rate of crime

What are alternative sources of stats?

• self-report studies

• victim surveys

Why are alternative sources of stats not always entirely reliable?

people can forget/conceal/exaggerate + only a selection of generally less serious offences

How does Lemert distinguish between primary and secondary deviance?

• primary- deviant acts not publicly labelled (e.g. fare dodging)

• secondary- societal reaction to labelled deviance

How does a master status occur?

some deviance is labelled = stigmatisation, shame, humiliation, seen only in terms of label so becomes master status

How can a crisis of self concept be resolved?

individual has to accept deviant label + enact SFP = secondary deviance

What did Young find about marijuana users in Notting Hill?

drugs initially peripheral to hippie lifestyle (primary deviance), persecution + labelling by control culture (police) = increasingly see themselves as outsiders = deviant subculture, wear longer hair + more unique clothes + drug use becomes central activity = SFP

What did Cohen find about the deviance amplification spiral?

studied mods + rockers at seaside resorts:

• press exagerration + distorted reporting = moral panic = moral entrepreneurs call for ‘crackdown’

• police arrest more youths + courts impose harsher penalties

• mods + rockers as folk devils = further marginalisation = further deviance

What did Triplett find about labelling and criminal justice policy in the USA?

increasing tendency to see young offenders as evil + less tolerant of minor deviance, CJS re-labelled status offences (e.g. truancy) as more serious = harsher sentences = increased offending

What two types of shaming does Braithwaite distinguish between?

• disintegrative- crime + criminal negatively labelled, offender excluded from society

• reintegrative- act labelled but not actor

What does Braithwaite argue about reintegrative shaming?

crime rate lower in societies where reintegrative shaming used over disintegrative shaming

Why did Douglas reject official stats when researching suicide?

socially constructed, only give detail on people who construct them (coroners) rather than real suicide rate (e.g. whether death labelled suicide depends on interactions/negotiations between social actors- coroner, relatives, friends, doctors, etc)

What does Atkinson argue about suicide?

coroners use taken-for-granted assumptions when reaching verdicts, use ideas about typical suicide (e.g. hanging, recent bereavement), one coroner said that if deceased takes more than 10 sleeping pills they can be certain it’s a suicide

What did Lemert find in his study of paranoia?

some individuals don’t easily fit into groups = labelled as odd = excluded = secondary deviance = further exclusion, causes people to discuss best way to deal with person = suspicions confirmed people are conspiring against them, reactions justifies fears for MH = psychiatric intervention = officially labelled + placed in hospital, ‘mental patient’ becomes master status

What happened in Rosenhan’s ‘pseudo-patient’ experiment?

researchers had themselves admitted to hospitals, claiming to ‘hear voices’ = diagnosed schizophrenic = master status + treated as mentally ill, keep notes of experience but staff interpret as symptom of mental illness

What did Goffman find about institutionalisation?

when admitted to ‘total institution’, individual undergoes ‘mortification of the self’ = old identity killed off + replaced with ‘inmate’ through ‘degradation rituals’ (e.g. confiscation of personal items)

How can labelling theory be criticised?

• Deterministic- implies deviant career inevitable following labelling

• Gives offender victim status, Realists: ignores real victims of crime

• Focus on less- serious crimes (e.g. drugs)

• Ignores fact that some actively choose deviance, not all passive victims of labelling

• Fails to explain why people commit primary deviance

• Implies deviance doesn’t exist w/o labelling

• Fails to analyse source of power to label deviance, focus on ‘middle range officials’ rather on capitalist class

• Fails to explain origin of labels + why applied to certain groups (e.g. working class)