Interactionism and labelling theory

Question 1

What makes an act deviant according to labelling theorists?

Answer 1

When society reacts to the crime

Question 2

Moral entrepreneurs

Answer 2

Leaders of moral crusades to change the laws

Question 3

What are two effects of new laws according to Becker?

Answer 3

Creating of law breakers
Expansion of social agents

Question 4

Example of creation and impact of law

Answer 4

Victorian moral entrepreneurs lead to laws surrounding Truancy and sexual promiscuity which made more young people deviant

Question 5

3 factors impacting arrest, charge and conviction

Answer 5

Appearance and personality
Interaction with social agent
Circumstance for arrest

Question 6

What affects police decisions to arrest youths according to Piliavin and Briar?

Answer 6

Gender, ethnicity and class with time and location of ‘crime’

Question 7

Typifications

Answer 7

The stereotypes social agents hold about deviants

Question 8

How do typifications lead to class bias

Answer 8

Working class people fit the deviant stereotype

Question 9

How is bias enforced by probation officers

Answer 9

Poverty and broken homes cause crime, so probation officers patrol working class areas.

Question 10

Why is justice negotiated for middle class people?

Answer 10

They fit the typifications less and parents can negotiate based on monitoring and changing their deviant child’s behaviour

Question 11

Why should we use OCS as a topic rather than resource

Answer 11

They are invalid and at face-value

Question 12

Why are OCS socially constructed?

Answer 12

Choices on proceeding with conviction are made and are based on the label they attached to the deviant

Question 13

What do statistics tell us?

Answer 13

Activities of prosecutors and police

Question 14

Dark figure of crime

Answer 14

Crime that goes unreported, unrecognised and undetected; the crime rate doesn’t include this

Question 15

Two types of statistics sociologists use to study crime

Answer 15

Victim surveys and self report surveys

Question 16

Primary deviance

Answer 16

Crime and deviance that goes unreported and non-socially defined

Question 17

Master status

Answer 17

Labelling excludes and stigmatises to become their only source of identity

Question 18

Self-concept

Answer 18

The sense of identity

Question 19

Self fulfilling prophecy

Answer 19

Internalising a label and acting it out

Question 20

Secondary deviance

Answer 20

Deviance as a result of societies reaction

Question 21

Deviant career

Answer 21

Reaction leads to seeking a label such as a subculture that supports deviance

Question 22

Deviant subculture

Answer 22

Subcultures of crime and deviance norms

Question 23

Control culture

Answer 23

Norms and values that control behaviour

Question 24

Deviance amplification spiral

Answer 24

The idea that reporting deviance leads to deviance increasing

Question 25

Cohens media and 'folk devil' study

Answer 25

Studied the media exaggerated impact on mods and rockers. Moral entrepreneurs called for a lockdown which social agents prosecuted them. Led to stigmatisation and isolating mods and rockers as 'Folk devils' and seeking refuge in deviant subcultures to fulfill a deviant career

Question 26

Folk devils vs Dark figure

Answer 26

Folk devils - Overreported Dark figure - Underreported

Question 27

How have attempts to control and punish offenders had the opposite according to Triplett

Answer 27

Considered evil and had harsher punishments which leads to rebellion and higher crime rates such as Truancy

Question 28

Why is labelling theory important to policy?

Answer 28

Suggests it pushes more into crime. Creating less laws = less crime

Question 29

Disintegrative shaming

Answer 29

Offender and crime excluded

Question 30

Reintegrative shaming

Answer 30

Act labelled as evil, offender not

Question 31

Which shaming leads to less crime according to Brainwathe

Answer 31

Reintegrative shaming as they can reflect on how bad their crime was and not themselves. It allows less stigma and allows the re-joining of society rather than exclusion.

Question 32

Describe Durkheims study into suicide.

Answer 32

Using OS, he studied suicide amongst Catholics and protestants and discovered causes of suicide based on effective society integration and behaviour regulation

Question 33

How does Douglas view OS on suicide?

Answer 33

A social construct and only tell us about the activities based on who is constructing reports i.e. Coroners

Question 34

How does death get labelled as suicide?

Answer 34

Interactions and negotiations between social actors i.e. Coroners and families

Question 35

What data does Douglas suggest we use?

Answer 35

Qualitative data such as suicide notes, family interviews and suicide survivor interviews

Question 36

Statistics of deaths in the UK 2018 vs 2023

Answer 36

6,507 suicides in the UK in 2018 115 people take their lives a week in the UK in 2023

Question 37

What does Atkinson focus on relating to suicide?

Answer 37

The mode of suicide used The time, location Circumstance of death

Question 38

How can Atkinson be evaluated?

Answer 38

Interpretative data and has no factual quality to it

Question 39

What do interactionists say about OS?

Answer 39

A record of the activities of those who have the power to attach labels

Question 40

Lemert paranoia study; master status

Answer 40

Individuals considered odd produce a reaction that labels them as mentally ill. They get sent to mental institutions and paranoid becomes their master status

Question 41

Rosenhan's study into pseudo patients

Answer 41

Researches admitted to hospitals as 'hearing things.' They were diagnosed as schizophrenic and treated like this, becoming their master status

Question 42

Goffman asylum study; Mortification and degredation

Answer 42

Asylums involve Mortification which is killing your identity and degradation rituals such as confiscation which remove your identity and replace it with 'the inmate'

Question 43

How did people in the Asylums react to this? Two ways

Answer 43

Immediate conformity Resistance and late conformity

Question 44

Braginski et al manipulation study

Answer 44

Inmates manipulated status as being not well enough to be discharged but not sick enough to be kept. They gained free roam

Question 45

Positive contribution of labelling theory?

Answer 45

Shows how discriminatory laws can be and how OS/OCs are the recorded activities

Question 46

3 criticisms of labelling theory

Answer 46

Deterministic Assumes deviants aren't aware that their acts are deviant Focuses on middle ground social agents rather than those who create laws i.e. Government