LABELLING THEORIES OF CRIME AND DEVIANCE
LABELLING PROCESS - LEMERT
Primary deviance: a person commits an act they know is deviant/criminal but no one else knows so no label is attached
Secondary deviance: the deviant act is witnessed and a label is attached to the person committing the act
Social construction = social phenomena that is created by society + is not naturally occurring as a result of evolution
Agencies of social control
Informal
Formal
Moral entrepreneurs
Ruling class
Government
Law makers
Police
Peers
Criminal Justice System
Society
Courts
CICOUREL - LABELLING LEADS TO SELECTIVE LAW ENFORCEMENT
When a group is labelled as deviant/criminal, the police are then likely to focus on that group of people and reinforce stereotypes - Typifications
Typification = stereotypes of what is a 'typical criminal'
BECKER - RELATIVITY OF CRIME + DEVIANCE - WAYS CRIME AND DEVIANCE IS SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED
Historical - how crime and deviant acts have changed overtime e.g. homosexuality was deviant and illegal but now it's acceptable
Cultural - what is considered acceptable or rude will differ dependent upon what culture you are in e.g. eating with your left hand in Arab nations are considered rude
Contextual - dependent upon a situation whether something is acceptable e.g. bikini on a beach vs a bikini in a shopping centre
Generational - some behaviours are acceptable from a certain age groups and some are illegal e.g.an 8 year old clubbing on a friday night
CONSEQUENCES OF LABELLING
Deviancy amplifications - an attempt to control deviance leads to greater amount of deviance. e.g. COHENS mods + rockers
Master status - where the individual is identified by a particular aspect of themselves such as being a criminal and this affects how they are treated within society. This leads to a criminal career because their label prevents them from accessing legitimate means of achieving goals
Self-fulfilling prophecy - Once a person is labelled as deviant, they take on the label and begin to act in a way that the have been labelled
WHY DO PEOPLE COMMIT CRIME (NON-SOCIOLOGICAL)
Maternal deprivation - BOWLBY - people who are deprived from a mothers love at a young age are more likely to become criminals
Personality traits - FREUD - ID, EGO, SUPER EGO - personality is a balance of three unconscious areas and when these are imbalanced criminal behaviour occurs because the individual is controlled by basic desires
Mental Abnormality - this idea suggests that there is some sort of brain damage or mental illness suffered by criminals which makes them commit crimes
out of date - mothers are not the only primary caregivers
Lack of empirical evidence - no observations/experiements
Criminals become the victims
Evaluation - doesn't explain why people commit the original deviance before they are labelled + deterministic (stereotypes are predetermined)
Evaluation - shows how deviant careers can be established + reveals the role of the powerful in crime and deviance