Interactionist view on mental health with crime

What do they argue about the usage of official statistics to explain crime?

• They reject it; arguing it is a social construction since they only record activities of psychiatrists with the power to attach labels.

• Everybody institutionalised is classified as deviant

What do they argue about a person’s master status when they have a mental health condition?

It becomes their master status as the reaction to the illness by others influences them so much that it becomes their primary identity.

• Depending on the reaction, the person will accept the status of being ill, proving mental illness is a social construction.

What does Lemert argue about secondary deviance; with paranoia as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

He argues that when a person has committed primary deviance, there will be no judgement that would’ve influenced their actions. However, after a label has been given, they respond to it with secondary deviance, which becomes their master status.

What does Rosenhan’s study of schizophrenia say about labelling?

• His research in hospitals, with multiple researchers going in and labelling themselves as schizophrenic led to them no longer being viewed as people. The label they gave themselves led to staff treating them as mentally ill, which does the power of labelling shaping a person’s master status.

• This leads to disintegrative shaping as every action they did linked to their status somehow, which ostracised them from society.

What does Goffman argue about institutionalisation?

When a person becomes accustomed to the rules, routines and culture of an institution, they find it difficult to adjust to life outside of the institution. Their old identity is symbolically ‘killed off’ and replaced with ‘inmate’, which is achieved through degradation rituals like confiscation.

• The inmates internalise their new identity and are unable to re-adjust to the outside world.

What is the usefulness of the interactionist approach?

It’s focus on the interaction between individuals is a strength as relationships between people can influence a person’s mental heath before structural factors like school or the working environment. For example, children spend a lot of time with their parents before starting school, which could shape how they act within there based on that socialisation.

What are the critiques to the interactionalist approach?

• It cannot explain what happened before the label was given; so therefore, cannot find a solution

• Labelling isnt random; some groups have more power to give a label and their labelling will carry a bias from how they’ve grown up

• People have free will; may not act upon the label

• Doesn’t use official statistics; no way to find a solution.