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Interactionism and Crime - Coggle Diagram
Interactionism and Crime
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The Media
Interactionists like Stan Cohen (1960s Britain) argue that the media has a long history of exaggerating the deviance of youth subcultures in particular, making them seem more deviant than they actually are which creates a 'moral panic' among the general public, leading to authorities clamping down on the activities of these subcultures.
For a moral panic to break out, the public need to believe what they see in the media and respond disproportionately which could be expressed as heightened levels of concern and campaigning for action against deviants.
S. Cohen showed that the media, for lack of other stories, exaggerated the violence which took place in two youth subcultures.
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Jock Young (1971)
The value of Becker's approach can be seen in its application in Young's study of 'hippie' marijuana users in Notting Hill, London. The police tended to see hippies as scruffy, dirty, promiscuous, good-for-nothing drug addicts.
Police action against marijuana users united the hippies and made them feel different. Deviant norms and values developed, having been defined. Treated as outsiders, the hippies tended to express and accentuate this difference. The drugs actually became of greater value to the group as a symbol of their difference.
A deviant subculture has evolved and deviant self-concepts were reinforced, all of which made it increasingly difficult for the hippies to re-renter conventional society.
Social Policies
Stephen Jones (2009) reviewed the policy implications of interactionist and labelling theories. There has been some influence. For example, in Britain, the Independent newspaper started a campaign in 1997 to legalise cannabis and in countries such as the Netherlands. some 'soft' drugs have been effectively legalised.
In Britain, the main impact on such thinking has been on juvenile justice where there has been some attempt to avoid stigmatising young offenders. E.g. Attempts to use cautions rather than prosecutions for young offenders, and separate juvenile courts were introduced in 1993.
For adults, the only measure of this nature was in 1974 when offenders were now allowed to withhold from employers information about most offences, once a period of time had elapsed.