A summarised explanation of the interactionalist’s perspective of crime and deviancy. In this document I cover relationship between crime in the media and the effects of media representation, an explanation and evaluation of Becker’s labelling theory and other key sociologist such as Cicourel, ...
A2. Crime and Deviance – INTERACTIONALISM
Crime and the Media
‘New Values’
Stan Cohen and Jock Young (1973) said the focus is on DOVE:
o Drama
o Oversimplification
o Violence and risk
o Extraordinary Events
Media Representations
Ditton and Duffy (1983)
Violent and sexual crimes are overrepresented with 46% of crime is
reported through the media yet only make up 3% of crime cases
Felson (1998)
Criminals and victims are portrayed as older and middle class
despite teenager and the working class are more likely to be victims
of crime and engage in criminal behaviour. The media tend to focus
on ‘extraordinary criminals’ this is called ‘dramatic fallacy’.
Media Exaggerations and Oversimplifications
o Police success is overly exaggerated, therefore the
relationship between the police is mutually beneficial. The
media sets an unrealistic expectation of how the police
operate. (Forensics used on every case, burglary)
o Risk of being a victim is overly exaggerated by the media.
Higher classes and women are made to believe that they are
most likely to be victims when teenagers are most likely
victims of crime.
o Crimes are reported without wider social context, for example
how the media reported on the Black Lives Matter riots 2020,
they were described as mindless criminals but little reporting
on the true victims of the crime George Floyd.
o An increasing focus of the ‘sex crimes’ being committed by
depraved sex fiends when it has been found that majority of
‘sex crimes’ happen within the family or are committed by
someone you know.
Representations are the opposite of statistics
o Drug and sex crimes are reported massively despite most crimes
being property crime, yet this is rarely reported.
o Fictional murders are always pre-meditated (real ones are
mostly linked to brawls and domestic disputes)
o Fictional sex crimes are committed by strangers (in reality,
most offenders are known to the victim)
o Fictional detectives always solve the crime
, The Media as a Cause of Crime
o People imitate what they see – the media creates deviant role
models
o Arousal through violent or sexual imagery
o Desensitisation
o Transmitting criminal techniques
o Stimulating desire for material goods (advertising)
o Portraying police as incompetent
o Glamorising offending
Interactionism and ‘Labelling’ Theory
Interactionalists believe that most people commit crimes but
depending on how they are portrayed in the media determines the
likelihood of caught.
Becker: ‘Deviancy is not a quality of the act a person commits but
rather a consequence of the application by others of rules and
sanctions to an ‘offender’. Deviant behaviour is behaviour that
people so label.’
Stereotypes created by the media leads to the over policing of
minority groups. This can be seen through Black afro-Caribbean boys,
through the media they are often depicted as ‘thugs’ which leads to
them being stopped and searched more often than other social groups.
Evaluation of Becker
o It is not necessarily true to say that most people commit
deviant and illegal activities
o Durkheim would disagree that there is no such thing as a
deviant act – there are many common norms and values in
society, though they may not share by all
o Becker lessens the effect that serious crimes may have on
victims – feminists would say that sexual violence is not just
a problem of labels
o However, Marxists would agree that the crimes of the lower
classes are labelled as more serious than the crimes of the
middle classes – e.g., burglary labelled as more serious than
claiming expenses illegally
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