✅Interactionalism

Question 1

What are the foundations of the interactionalist view as outlined by Becker?

Answer 1

Becker’s view that in one sence there is no such thing as a deviant act, as an act only becomes deviant when others perceive it to be.
This means deviancy is a quality that lies in the interaction between the person committing the act and those who respond to it.

Question 2

What is labelling theory based on?

Answer 2

The theorising of George Mead who suggested that we all have an interval dialogue between our personal view of ourselves and what we think others see when they deal with us.
Therefore labelling theory suggests we shouldn’t blame deviants but the interaction between deviants and those who define them as deviant.

Question 3

What is the most important sentence regarding labelling

Answer 3

Labelling theory suggests that most people commit deviant and criminal activities but only some people get caught and stigmatised for it.

Question 4

What does John Kitsuse argue about labelling?

Answer 4

In the early 1960s John Kitsuse found that attitudes to homosexuality varied, with some being quite tolerant to others showing extreme hatred. Not all homosexuals were labelled and hence suffered no consequences under law at the time.

(Crime is not dictated by the action but the reaction)

Question 5

What social factors affect whether an act is seen as deviant or normal?

Answer 5

Place- nudity on some beaches not in a church
Social situation- killing in war vs in peace
Culture- alcohol is tolerated in western culture but illegal in Saudi Arabia
History- cock fighting were popular pastimes until outlawed in 1935 in England and Wales
Who commits the action- violent behaviour tolerated by men but women are seen as doubly deviant (Dobash and Dobash)

Question 6

Name Becker’s most famous study

Answer 6

Howard Becker- “Outsiders: studies in the sociology of deviance”
Becker defined deviance as a transaction between someone who is alleged to have broken rules and those who claim that rules have been broken.
He drew attention to the different meanings of ‘deviant acts’ by different people and found that attempts to control deviance might in fact creat deviance.

Question 7

What did Becker famously quote?

Answer 7

“Deviance is a consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions to the offender, the deviant is one whom the label has been successfully applied”

Question 8

What study is Coombs perform in 1974

Answer 8

Interviewed Male prostitutes and suggested that a combination of social rejection and the rewards of gifts resulted in young males taking on this way of life.

Question 9

What did Box find in 1981?

Answer 9

He identified 4 social reasons why ex-cons/inmates choose to remain as offenders rather than changing their life (60% reoffending rate) including social discrimination, where they are socially exiled.

Question 10

What does Becker argue about the individual who’s been given a label?

Answer 10

He states that the label becomes a defining characteristic of a person known as a master status, everything a person does is seen in light of this master status.

Question 11

What did Erving Goffman (1968) argues about the master status (social labels).

Answer 11

Argued social labels affect how we see people, so if a person is seen as different or inferior, perhaps for reasons such as mental illness, that label may influence how Others react to them as a ‘label’ is said to apply to that person.

Question 12

Name an example of a master status.

Answer 12

Jimmy Saville, once viewed as a TV legend was given the master status of being a ‘paedophile’ after he was found guilty of molesting children and hence all actions henceforth were viewed in light of these depraved actions.

Question 13

What did Rosenhans experiment find about labels?

Answer 13

A test group entered a mental institution with fake ‘paranoia, schizophrenia’ as they falsely claimed they heard voices saying ‘empty dull thud’. When they entered their ward they acted normally but their condition was not undiagnosed as they had the master status of crazy. Eventually they were discharged with ‘paranoia and schizophrenia in remission’, not cured of their fake disease due to their label.

Question 14

What did Malinowski find in his study?

Answer 14

Malinowski describe how a young man killed himself after being public ally accused of incest, the islanders expressed horror and disgust publicly at the idea of incest but when investigates further it was found not uncommon and that it was only made deviant when made public.
The suicide was not the result of his action but of the process and consequences of the label.

Question 15

What 3 points does Becker emphasise about Malinowskis study?

Answer 15

1. Just because someone breaks the rules they will not necessarily be defined as deviant
2. Someone must enforce the rules (in Malinowski’s case it was the rejected ex-lover of the girl involved in the incest.
3. If a person is successfully labelled consequences will follow

Question 16

What does Liazos (1972)state to negatively evaluate interactionalsim?

Answer 16

Interactionalism only tends to focus on the study of ‘nuts, sluts and perverts’. Only specific crimes are studied so labelling does not account for the crimes of the wealthy, personal crime etc etc

Question 17

What did Ackers argue to negatively evaluate labelling theory?

Answer 17

Labelling theory puts too much emphasis on social reaction as the act is always more important than the reaction to it e.g rape, murder and child abuse are always deviant.
There should be more focus on the victim (could link to carol smart and postmodern feminism)

Question 18

Who positively evaluates labelling theory?

Answer 18

New Marxists incorporates interactionalsit studies into their own approach, namely Taylor, Walton and Young, influential in making it the so called comprehensive theory.

Question 19

What did interactionalsit Lemert find in his studies

Answer 19

Lemert differentiated between primary and secondary deviance.
Primary deviance= is illegal behaviour we all take part in but no one gets labelled for e.g general speeding/underage drinking. No label no consequence.
Secondary deviance= where a person is labelled and suffers the consequences from the deviance

As primary deviance is not labelled the person involved does not have a label and no change of the self image is involved, only secondary deviance leads to a dramatic change in self image.

Question 20

How does Downes and Rock (2003) negatively evaluate Lemert.

Answer 20

Downes and rock (2003) argue that we can’t predict whether someone who has been labelled will follow a deviant career, because they will always have free will to choose not to deviate further :: Lemert is too deterministic.

Question 21

What is the stigmatising effect?

Answer 21

Once you have a label it is difficult to get rid of it, and this label creates further deviance, e.g a 27 year old who’s been caught having sexual relations with a 14 year old it criminalised, he then looks for women of his own age who reject him based on his master status, he’s driven to look for younger women again.

Question 22

What does Charles Horton Cooley describe?

Answer 22

He describes self as a looking glass, it’s the product of ones reaction to us. We as social actors reflect back to other their thoughts of us.
If others label us as deviant we gradually begin to act out a deviant career, a self fulfilling prophecy.

Question 23

What did D.J West find?

Answer 23

He found in his research that convicted youngsters developed self images as ‘hard offenders’, while those who had committed offences without being detained did not. In this light prisons do not seem likely to be successful ways of dealing with crime as they reinforce criminal tendencies.

Question 24

How does new left realist jock young negatively evaluate labelling theory?

Answer 24

It had an emphasis on the negative effects of labelling giving the offender a kind of victim status, :: they over-romanticise deviance and blame the agencies of social control for causing crime, when the perpetrator should be held accountable and the real victims of the crimes should not be ignored.

Question 25

What evidence supports the idea of the self fulfilling prophesy?

Answer 25

1) 90% of prison population are working class, they are labelled as scum
2) 96% of the prison population are Male, who are labelled as hegemonic and :: dominant/aggressive
3) Ethnic minorities are 7x more likely to be stopped and searched (ONS 2016) labelled as deviant

Question 26

Highlight the disproportionation of ethnic minorities in prison

Answer 26

1) 26% of the prison population (22,683) are from an ethnic minority backround
2) Cost of BAME over representation is estimated to be £234 million a year (prison reformtrust.org.uk)

Question 27

What % of judges are white Middle class?

Answer 27

90% therefore they are not reflective of the views of the majority

Question 28

What does social action theory (Weber) argue?

Answer 28

Argues the role of the police is to label some groups more than others, then to target to arrest them, while other equally criminal groups are ignored. :: the working class appear to be more criminal so the courts then put heavier sentences on the working class than middle class.

Question 29

Have did Piliavin and Briar find?

Answer 29

They studies a police dept in America and found that policeman excersied a great deal of discretion in decisions about official action. The decisions were largely based on assessment of character (what class, appearance and family background they had). In their study they state:
“He is a delinquent because someone in authority has defined him as one, often on the basis of the public face he has presented to officials rather than the kind of offence he has committed.”

Question 30

Name an act essential to the labelling/non labelling of youths.

Answer 30

The 1969 children and young persons act encourage the setting aside of custodial sentence to soften the labelling process of the juvenile offenders were from a ‘good’ home background with supportive parents.

On this basis the working class youth is more likely to get a custodial sentence than the middle class youth who would receive a caution or community service for the same crime.

Question 31

What distinction did Cicourel and Kitsuse draw within labelling?

Answer 31

They found labelling had 2 stages:

1) the behaviour producing process- where the social conduct and social interaction produces deviant behaviour.
2) the rate producing process- how officials define and classify deviant behaviour, how only some are labelled deviant.

Question 32

Describe Cicourel study entitled “the social organisation of Juvenile justice”

Answer 32

Cicourel found that groups such as police, judges, lawyers, social workers etc expected criminals to be: black, poor or from a broken home. When such fitting individuals cane before courts Cicourel found that they would be punished whereas the white middle class offenders were often released or referred for therapy.

Question 33

What did Cicourel find in his study of two American cities of the same population (10,000) and social structure?

Answer 33

Found that crime rate was much higher in one community than the other due to different size police forces. In he city where youth crime was much publicised in the press the juvenile delinquency was much higher. Because of this police prosecuted much more juveniles :: juvenile arrest and custody data was much higher. This gave the appearance that there was far more juvenile crime; in the other city juveniles were cautioned not prosecuted and :: Cicourel concluded that delinquents are produced by the agencies of social Contorl (Neg eval New right realists)

Question 34

What are the point of positive evaluation of Cicourels study on the two areas.

Answer 34

Large sample :: generalisable and representative data
POS eval with Marxism
Gives valuable insight into the working of authorities such as polic, juvenile justice system etc.

Question 35

What are the point of negative evaluation of Cicourels study on the two areas.

Answer 35

• ethnocentric (couldn’t apply to GB as in the USA)
• doesn’t focus on white collar crime ‘crimes of the suites’
• doesn’t focus on why people commit deviant acts/where the authorities get their meanings or preconceptions, only how they affect the interaction with the deviant.