Interactionist Perspective (amplification of deviance) and overall evaluation

Question 1

By studying deviance amplification - what do interactionists aim to show?

Answer 1

• how attempts made by formal agencies of social control (ie. government, police, media) to reduce crime can ironically lead to an escalation and amplification of it
• then leads to further attempts to control it
• produces higher levels

Question 2

What do interactionists argue that the police and media as amplifiers of deviance contribute to?

Answer 2

• creation of moral panics and folk devils

Question 3

Who did Jock Young’s study ‘The Role of the Police as Amplifiers of Deviance’ focus on? What did it examine?

Answer 3

• hippie marijuana users in Notting Hill
• examined the meanings which coloured the police view of the hippies, how their actions were directed by those meanings and the effect of this

Question 4

How did the police manage to increase the organisation and cohesion of the ‘bohemian’ drug taking community?

Answer 4

• intensive police action united them in a shared sense of injustice at the harsh sentences and the distorted media image portrayed of their behaviour and identity

Question 5

How did the police manage to make the drug takers more conscious of themselves as a group with definite interests over and against those of wider society?

Answer 5

• interest and activity generated much introspection which caused the group to evolve theories explain the nature of their position in society

Question 6

How did the police’s treatment manage to result in drugs becoming more central to the community and the creation of a culture around them?

Answer 6

• rise in police action
• increased necessity for the drug user to segregate him/herself from wider society of non-users
• therefore, police action tended to unite them and make them feel different
• began to accept and rationalise their differences
• having been labelled as different, they now accentuated this difference

Question 7

How did the stereotype that the police originally held finally become realised and fantasy translated into reality?

Answer 7

• drug use was transformed from a peripheral to a central activity
• deviant subculture evolved in which deviant self concepts were reinforced
• drug use became symbol/ representation of ‘bohemianism’ and rebellion against unfair system

Question 8

Once the deviants had been labelled in such a way and been excluded from the system - what became very difficult?

Answer 8

• to re-enter the system
• label and subculture that developed around the behaviour stood in opposition to gaining regular employment
• thus reinforced the subcultures

Question 9

Where and when was the spasmodic and isolated incidents of fighting which broke out and was exaggerated and distorted to stress that violence had been caused by the mods and rockers with ‘much hostility’ between then?

Answer 9

• 1994, Easter Sunday

- bored youths in Clacton

Question 10

How did newspapers manage to sharply polarise British youth?

Answer 10

• produced articles profiling the groups and discussing the culture/ lifestyle of them to generate interest
• according to Cohen, some divisions did exist between the groups but they weren’t of great significance to the groups themselves

Question 11

On the bank holiday weekend in May, the newspapers had predicted scenes of blood and violence but what actually happened according to Cohen?

Answer 11

• many mods and rockers did come out in large numbers but were unsure as to what to do

Question 12

How did the media exaggerated interest and sensationalised reporting impact the agencies of social control?

Answer 12

• police and local magistrates became sensitised to events by the newspapers predictions
• Cohen found the police reacted at any hint of trouble and more people than usual were arrested - especially if they fitted ‘mod’ or ‘rocker’
• also influenced magistrates who imposed heavier penalties than usual to combat the perceived ‘crime wave’
• this was actually crime created by the media

Question 13

What did Cohen conclude?

Answer 13

• the media built up mods and rockers into folk devils ie. groups labelled as troublemakers

Question 14

How did the media make mods and rockers more significant and pertinent?

Answer 14

• covering and drawing attention to them

- defined the subcultures, publicised them, nurtured the differences

Question 15

What was the result of the media nurturing and sensationalising the differences between them?

Answer 15

• helped to create the violence that took place
• also confirmed them as troublemakers in the eyes of the public
• resultantly, moral panic developed in which the public, police and magistrates united in their reaction against the perceived threat to law and order and deviance was amplified

Question 16

How could this interactionist approach be considered too deterministic?

Answer 16

• tends to suggest that once a label has been given a deviant career is inevitable
• Goffman’s study shows that it can be manipulated

Question 17

How could interactionists be said to be ignoring the real victims of crime?

Answer 17

• the emphasis on the negative effects of labelling gives the offender a kind of victim status

Question 18

What does the interactionist perspective tend to ignore? (3)

Answer 18

• corporate crime
• the element of personal choice when someone is deviant
• how public shaming can be positive as motivation to correct their behaviour

Question 19

Is primary deviance fully explained in the argument?

Answer 19

• no

Question 20

How would Marxists critique the approach?

Answer 20

• say that they focus on how those in power can create deviance and deviants, but fails to correctly identify the source of this power
• focuses too heavily on the ‘middle range officials’ and not the capitalist class who make the rules

Question 21

Do they explain the origin of labels or why they’re applied to certain groups?

Answer 21

• no

Question 22

How is their approach to moral panics perhaps slightly flawed?

Answer 22

• they’re not always as cohesive as they assume, not everyone is sucked into them as easily as they suggest

Question 23

If increasing laws tends to lead to a deviancy amplification spiral, their argument is that we should decriminalise things so that there is less deviance. Why might this not be a good idea in terms of drugs?

Answer 23

• could still have a negative impact

- may lead to the use of ‘harder drugs’ or progressively lead to more serious crime