Interactionalism and Labelling Theory

Question 1

What is labelling?

Answer 1

• A form of social control.

Question 2

What is a moral panic?

Answer 2

• The process of arousing social change over an issue.

Question 3

Who are moral entrepreneurs?

Answer 3

• A person or group with the power to create or enforce rules and impose their morals, views and attitudes on others.

Question 4

Give at least two examples of moral entrepreneurs.

Answer 4

At least two from:

• Politicians
• Teachers
• Parents
• Religious leaders

Question 5

What is a folk devil?

Answer 5

• An over-simplified, ill-informed generalization of a particular person or social group who moral entrepreneurs want to demonise.

Question 6

Give at least two examples of folk devils.

Answer 6

At least two from:

• Mods and Rockers
• Hoodies
• Lone parent families
• Immigrants

Question 7

What are moral entrepreneurs able to do by labelling groups as folk devils?

Answer 7

• Create moral panics within society.

Question 8

How can the idea of moral panics be applied to knife crime?

Answer 8

• People may become worried and start carrying a knife. - People are more likely to be stabbed or stab someone else if you get into an argument if you are carrying a knife yourself.

Question 9

What are labelling theorists interested in?

Answer 9

• How and why certain acts become defined or labelled as criminal.

Question 10

What do labelling theorists argue?

Answer 10

• No act is inherently criminal or deviant in itself, in all situations and at all times. Instead, it only comes to be so when others label it as such.

Question 11

What factors influence whether a person is arrested, charged and convicted?

Answer 11

• Their interactions with agencies of social control.
• Their appearance, background and personal biography.
• The situation and circumstances of the offence.

Question 12

What do interactionalists argue about official statistics for crime?

Answer 12

• They are social constructed.

Question 13

What evidence is there to suggest that crime is socially constructed?
Give at least one example.

Answer 13

• At each stage of the criminal justice system, agents of social control make decisions about whether or not to proceed to the next stage. The outcome depends on the label they attach to the individual suspect or defendant In the course of their interactions. This label is likely to be affected by the stereotypes they hold.
• Statistics produced by the criminal justice system only tell us about the activities of the police and prosecutors, rather than the amount of crime in society or who commits it.

Question 14

What is the ‘dark figure’ for crime and why is it called the ‘dark figure’?

Answer 14

• The difference between official statistics and the ‘real’ rate of crime.
• Often called the dark figure because we do not know for certain how much crime goes undetected, and unreported and unrecorded.

Question 15

How do some sociologists go about getting a more accurate view of the amount of crime?

Answer 15

• By using victim surveys or self-report studies.

Question 16

What can victim surveys and self-report studies do?

Answer 16

• Add to our picture of crime.

Question 17

What is a potential limitation of victim surveys or self-report studies?

Answer 17

• People may forget, conceal or exaggerate when asked, if they have committed a crime or been a victim.
• The surveys often include a small selection of less serious crimes.

Question 18

What is secondary deviance a result of?

Answer 18

• Social reaction (labelling).

Question 19

Complete the following sentences:

Being caught and publicly ___ as a _____ can involve being _____, shamed, humiliated or ____ from ‘normal’ society. Once an individual is labelled, others may come to see them only in terms of the ____. This becomes his ____ status or controlling identity, overriding all others. In the eyes of the world, this person is no longer a colleague, a parent, they are a criminal – in short, an ___.
This can provoke a crisis for the individuals self-concept or sense of _____. One way to solve this crisis is for the individual to ____ the deviant label and to see themselves as the rest of the world sees them. In turn, this may lead to a ____ ______ _________, in which the individual acts out or lives up to their deviant label, therefore becoming what the label says they are. This is known as ______ deviance.
Secondary deviance is likely to provoke further hostile reactions from society, and reinforce the deviants ‘outsider’ status. Again, this may lead to more deviance and a deviant career.

Answer 19

• Labelled
• Criminal
• Stigmatised
• Excluded
• Label
• Master
• Outsider
• Identity
• Accept
• Self Fulfilling Prophecy
• Secondary

Question 20

Why do interactionists reject official statistics on mental illness?

Answer 20

• Because they regard these as social constructs.
• They are simply a record of the activities of those such a psychiatrists with the power to attach labels such as schizophrenic or paranoid to others.