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Interactionism and Crime: Labelling theory - Coggle Diagram
Interactionism and Crime: Labelling theory
Interactionists - argue that the social world consists of symbols that have culturally defined meaning to people, which are not fixed and change over time
Key assumptions
Everybody commits crime or deviant acts at some point in their life, but only some people are caught
Focus on interactions between deviants and those who label them as deviant (moral entrepreneurs)
Rules are selectively enforced and some groups are more likely to be labelled as criminal than others (W/C, EM boys)
Crime is a consequence of labelling
Study of Trobriand Islands (Malinowski)
A little boy killed himself for being publically humiliated / labelled as being incestuous
Everyone did it, but they weren't caught or labelled
Attitudes changed once the act was more public
Becker
Just because someone breaks a rule, it does not follow that others will find it deviant
Someone must enforce the rules / pay attention to them
If the person is successfully labelled, consequences follow
Negative label - self concept - label reinforces - master status - deviant career
Selective law enforcement - stereotypes and preexisting conceptions lead to certain groups being targeted (EM, W/C, boys)
Cicourel (AO2)
M/C - good family background / temporary lapse in behaviour - no charge
Similar minor crimes were committed by children
Selective law enforcement
M/C less likely to be convicted than W/C
Stop and search differences in areas
Compared M/C and W/C area in California
W/C - negative family background - formal action taken against them
Analysis (AO3)
Notting Hill selective reinforcement
Large Caribbean community since the 1960s and Windrush generation
Large white, wealthy population
Uncoincidentally a large police presence in the area
Lemert
Distinguished between primary and secondary deviance
Looked at stuttering and found that children only had stutters because of the cultural emphasis put on ceremonial speech making
So chronic stuttering (secondary deviance) is a response to the parents' reaction to the stuttering (primary deviance)
Primary deviance
Deviant act that was caught - label is attached
Stigmatised and excluded for deviance
Develop master status
Affects self concept
Eg. drug user over sister, friend, etc.
Secondary deviance
Further deviance as a result of labelling of primary deviance
Leads to a deviant career (self fulfilling prophecy)
Cohen - Folk devils
'Mods' and 'Rockers' presented as folk devils
Led to moral panic
As a result, deviancy amplification - appears to increase crime rate due to police involvement
Analysis (AO3)
Knife crime
Could be due to extra policing and extra attention rather than an actual increase in crime
Chambliss - Saints and Roughnecks
Studied boys who were getting into deviant crime
Saints - 8 M/C delinquent boys
Roughnecks - 6 W/C delinquent boys
Saints - all but one went to uni and got a good job
Roughnecks - 2 were in and out of prison, 2 were serious criminals, 2 were successful and became teachers
Analysis (AO3)
Lavinia Woodward stabbed her boyfriend
Went to Oxford University
Let off from situation and had no jail time (cultural capital)
Braithwaite
Disintegrative and reintegrative shaming
Disintegrated
After crime, offender is publically labelled and shamed
Separated from community
Reintegrative
Acknowledge crime
Make efforts to make it easier for them to return to be law abiding
Give them a chance to express remorse for the victim / family
UK has a disintegrative approach to maintain law and order / respect for the law
It may move to a reintegrative approach
Evaluation (AO3)
Plummer - labelling theory is influential with policy making about shaming / moral panic awareness
Provides alternative views to structuralist theories
Shows importance of stereotyping leading to more crime
Critical for having sympathy for the criminal rather than the victim
Doesn't explain why the crime was committed before the label
Marxists - ignores white collar crime
Too deterministic - labelling doesn't always lead to crime
Liazos - labelling theory fulfills the stigma around certain crimes by overfocusing on them
No real policy solutions