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interactionism and labelling - Coggle Diagram
interactionism and labelling
the social construction of crime
becker
Crime is socially constructed
A crime only becomes a crime when it is labelled as such
Moral entrepreneurs campaign to change and introduce new laws – this creates a new set of deviants
evaluation
Implies without labelling crime would not exist
Doesn’t explain why people commit crime in the first place
who gets labelled
pilavan and briar
Not everyone who commits a crime gets caught and punished for it.
Police make decisions about stop and search and arrests based on manner, clothing, gender, class, ethnicity, location.
evaluation
This leads to the working class and ethnic minorities being targeted – class and racial bias
Leads to inaccurate crime statistics.
justice is negotiable
cicourel
justice is fixed but negotiable
Cicourel uses the example of a middle class and a working class youth both arrested for the same offence. The middle class youth is less likely to be charged as his parents will have the cultural and economic capital to ensure their son is released without charge.
they might use their economic capital to pay for a good lawyer and their cultural capital to negotiate with the police
evaluation
Once again, this leads to inaccurate crime statistics biased against the working class
self fulfilling prophecy
lemert
when someone is caught committing a crime they are publicly labelled a criminal.
becomes their master status.
In the eyes of the world the criminal is no longer seen as a person but as a thief , junkie or paedophile and they are treated as such.
creates a self fulfilling prophecy
this causes them to sink into further criminality.
evaulation
People are free to choose – not everyone labelled as a criminal has to choose to continue their criminal behaviour
Lemert appears to sympathise with the criminal for getting a label – he forgets about the victims of crime