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Summary AQA A-level Sociology Book 2 Crime and deviance: Interactionalism and Labelling Theory A* Revision notes

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Which chapters are summarized? Interactionalism and labelling theory
Uploaded on November 19, 2022
Number of pages 5
Written in 2022/2023
Type Summary

TOPIC 2: INTERACTIONSIM AND LABELLING THEORY

The social construction of crime:

● Becker: deviant = someone who label has been successfully applied
Deviant behaviour: behaviour people label.
● Moral entrepreneurs: lead a moral ’crusade’ to change law

● Becker: new law has 2 effects:
1. Creation of a new group of ‘outsiders’- deviants who break new rule.
2. Creation of social control agency (police) to enforce rule
● Platt: ‘juvenile delinquency’: created to protect young people at risk.

● Becker: social control agencies campaign to change law to increase own power,
redefine behaviour as unacceptable -> new laws being created

Who gets labelled?

Whether a person is arrested, charged and convicted depends on factors such as:

 Interactions with agencies of social control e.g. police
● Appearance, background

● Situation/ circumstances of offence.

● Piliavin/ Briar: police decisions to arrest youth were based on physical cues (dress)

Cicourel- the negotiation of justice

 Cicourel: officers’ typifications led them to concentrate on certain ‘types’-> law
enforcement showing class bias where WC fitted the police typifications more
closely
 Justice not fixed but negotiable. E.g. when MC youth is arrested, less likely to be
charged because background doesn’t fit with police’s ‘typical delinquent’.

 Cicourel: statistics don’t give a valid picture of patterns of crime/ cannot be used as
a resource but should be treated as a topic

The social construction of crime statistics:

● Interactionists: OS are socially constructed

● OS count for decisions made by control agents at different stages of justice system

● The dark figure of crime: difference between OS and real rate of crime

● Alternative statistics: Victim surveys (limited: people may forget/ exaggerate)

, The effects of labelling

Primary and secondary deviance

● Primary deviance: deviant acts that have NOT been publicly labelled.

● Lemert: primary deviance unlikely to have a single cause. Primary deviants don’t see
themselves as deviant.
● Secondary deviance: result of societal reaction/ labelling. Individual labelled, others
see him only in terms of the label, becomes his master status -> SFP
● Secondary deviance -> hostile reactions from society/ reinforce deviant’s ‘outsider’
status -> join deviant subculture that offers deviant career opportunities, rewards
deviant behaviour, confirms deviant identity.
● Young: marijuana users in Notting Hill: drugs peripheral to their lifestyle (primary
deviance) -> persecution from police so hippies saw themselves as outsiders ->
formed deviant subcultures + attracted further attention -> SFP
● Not act itself, but hostile societal reaction that creates deviance. Social control
processes produce opposite of law abiding behaviour
● Downes/ Rock: cannot predict if labelled person will follow deviant career (free to
not deviate further)

Deviance amplification spiral

● Attempt to control deviance -> increase deviance -> greater control it -> higher
deviance. More control -> more deviance -> spiral EG: Young’s study of drug hippies
● Cohen: EG: Mods and Rockers moral panic-> press exaggeration -> concern with
moral entrepreneurs -> police responded by arresting more youths which confirmed
truth of original media reaction -> more public concern
● Folk devils vs the dark figure: Folk devils are over-labelled and over-exposed to
public view. Pursuit of folk devils draws resources from punishing dark figures of
crime

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