Crime + Deviance - Interactionalist Perspective

Question 1

What is social construction?

Answer 1

Social actions create society, rather than facts

Question 2

What is a Moral Entrepreneur?
(Becker)

Answer 2

Individuals or groups who campaign to create and enforce rules that define certain behaviours as deviant or “evil”

Question 3

What 3 factors did Piliavin and Brair say influences the labelling process of offenders?

Answer 3

• Interactions with agencies and social control
• Appearance, background, personal biography
• Situation and circumstances of offence

Question 4

What are Typifications?
(Cicourel)

Answer 4

Categorising different types of criminals. Police officers make decisions influenced by stereotypes.

(For example, probation workers believing juvenile delinquency was linked to broken homes)

Question 5

What did Cicourel research?

Answer 5

He looked at how working-class areas had an increased police presence looking for working-class criminals, making it become a self-fulfilling prediction

Question 6

How much more likely are Black British people to be stopped and searched than White British people?

Answer 6

Almost 11 times more likely (2020)

Question 7

What is the Dark Figure of Crime?

Answer 7

The crimes that go unreported due to being dismissed, are unable to be reported, or victims being unaware of the crime

Question 8

What does Cicourel say about official statistics?

Answer 8

We can never take official crime statistics as valid information, it only tells us the actions of the police and justice system not the amount of crime in society

Question 9

What are the 4 effects of labelling?
(Lemert)

Answer 9

• Primary deviance
• Master status
• Secondary deviance
• Deviant career

Question 10

What is Primary Deviance?
(Lemert)

Answer 10

Deviant acts that have not been publicly labelled go mostly uncaught, offenders can easily rationalise their actions

Question 11

What is Master Status?
(Lemert)

Answer 11

The result of labelling, leading to stigma, shame, and exclusion from society. Individuals become unable to separate themselves from the label, leading to the self-fulfilling prophecy

Question 12

What is Secondary Deviance?
(Lemert)

Answer 12

The behaviour of an individual of master status

Question 13

What is a Deviant Career?
(Lemert)

Answer 13

Individuals are further excluded from society and seek others they identify with, forming subcultures that promote deviant opportunities

Question 14

What was Jock Young’s Drugtakers study?

Answer 14

• Studied hippy marijuana users in Notting Hill
• What was casual use became a central activity due persecution and labelling causing a deviant subculture to be formed

Question 15

What do Downes and Rock say about labelling?

Answer 15

We cannot predict the outcome of those who are labelled as it is not guaranteed they will a deviant career

Question 16

What is a Deviance Amplification Spiral?

Answer 16

The negative reaction of society and attempts to control deviant behaviour will only create more deviant behaviour

Question 17

What did Cohen find about media panic?

Answer 17

Moral panic within the media only leads to police looking for a particular crime and creating harsher punishments for it

Question 18

How is drug use policed differently in Portugal and The Philippines?

Answer 18

In Portugal drugs have become decriminalised and users are treated like healthcare patients

In The Philippines people are killed for being suspected of being users

Question 19

What do labelling theorists argue is the answer?

Answer 19

• Decriminalising minor offences
• Avoid naming and shaming

Question 20

What types of shaming does Braithwaite identify?

Answer 20

• Disintegrative shaming (the crime and criminal are labelled)
• Redintegrative shaming (the behaviour is negatively labelled but the individual isn’t)

Question 21

What are some criticisms of labelling theory?

Answer 21

• Too deterministic
• Not focused on the victims
• Fails to explain why crime is commit crime in the first place
• Fails to analyse the source of power
• Becomes less useful for more serious crimes like murder