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Topic 2- Social construction of crime - Coggle Diagram
Topic 2- Social construction of crime
Labelling Theory
Labelling theories ask how and why some people and actions come to be labelled as criminal or deviant and what effect this has on those who are labelled
Instead of accepting official stats as a valid picture of crime like previous theories they regard them not as hard facts but as social constructs . Crime is a product of interactions between suspects and police for example rather than the result of wider external social forces such as blocked opportunity structure
Social construction theory
Rather than simply taking the definition of crime for granted, labelling theorists are interested in how and why certain acts come to be defined or labelled are criminal in the first place . No acts is inherently criminal or deviant in itself. It only comes to be when others label it .
Becker
Becker: A deviant is simply someone to whom the label has been successfully applied and deviant behaviour is simply behaviour that people so label.
This leads labelling theorists to look at how and why rules are created and are interested in the role of what Becker calls entrepreneurs- people whop lead moral crusade to change the law
However Becker argues that this new law invariably has 2 effects
1) The creation of the new group of outsiders- outlaws or deviants who break the new rules
2) The creation or expansion of a social control agency such as police to enforce the rule and impose labels on offenders
Noted that that social control agencies themselves may also campaign for a changes in the law to increase there own power
Platt: idea of juvenile delinquency was originally created as a result of a campaign bu upper class victorian moral entreprenurs aimed at protecting young people at risk.
This established juveniles as a separate category of offender with their own courts and it enabled the state to extend power beyond criminal offences involving the young into status offences (behaviour is an offence because of their age) such as truancy
Who gets Labelled
Not everyone who commits an offence is punished for it. Whether a person is arrested, charged and convicted depend on factors such as
1) Their interactions with agencies of social control
2) Their apperance, background and personal biology
3) The situation and circumstance of the offence
This leads labelling theorists to look at how laws are applied and enforced. Studies show that agencies of social control are more likely to label certain groups of people as deviant or criminal.
Piliavin and Briar found that police decisions to arrest a youth were mainly based on physical cues from which they made judgement about the youths character. Judgement was also influenced by gender, class and ethnicity as well as time and place . EG those stopped late at night in high crime areas ran a greater risk of arrest
Social construction of crime stats
Interactionalists see official crime stats as socially constructed. At each stage of criminal justice system agents of social control make decisions about whether or not to proceed to next stage. Outcome depends on label they attach to the individual. This is usually affected by stereotypes,
As a result the stats produced by the criminal justice system only tell us about the activities of the police and prosecution rather than the amount of crime
Dark Figure of crime: Difference between the official statistics and the real rate of crime. We do not know for certain how much crime goes undetected, unreported or unrecorded
Alternative stats: some sociologists use victim surveys ( where people ask what crimes they have been victim of) or self report methods (where they ask what crimes have been committed) to gain more accurate view. These can add to our picture of crime but have several limitations such as people may forget or exaggerate when asked if they have committed or been victim of crime.