🏷️ Interactionism and Labelling Theory

Question 1

Interactionism

Answer 1

Sees our interactions with each other as based on meanings or labels. Crime and criminals are social constructi

Question 2

Labelling theory

Answer 2

No act is deviant or criminal in itself - it only becomes so when others label it as such

Question 3

Differential
enforcement

Answer 3

Social control agencies use typifications to label some groups as
criminal more than others

Question 4

Primary and
secondary
deviance

Answer 4

Lemert argues that labelling is a cause of crime, He explains this by
distinguishing between primary and
secondary deviance

Question 5

Self-fulfilling
prophecy

Answer 5

When an offender is labelled, society’s reaction pushes them into further deviance. They have lived up to their label.

Question 6

The deviance
amplification
spiral

Answer 6

An attempt to control deviance
through a crackdown leads to it
increasing rather than decreasing. This leads to greater attempts to control and even more deviance

Question 7

Interactionism
and crime
statistics

Answer 7

Interactionists reject the use of
statistics complied by the police
because they believe they only
measure what the police do (who they arrest) rather than what criminals do (how much crime there actually is).

Question 8

Young: The Hippies

Answer 8

A study in which police attention and labelling led hippies to retreat into closed groups where drug use took over

Question 9

Cohen: The Mods and Rockers - The study

Answer 9

Cohen uses the Mods and Rockers study to explain the
amplitication spiral

Question 10

Cohen: The Mods and Rockers - Media exaggeration

Answer 10

Media exaggeration caused
growing public concern

Question 11

Cohen: The Mods and Rockers - Moral entrepreneurs

Answer 11

Moral entrepreneurs called for a
crackdown leading to more
arrests, and more concern

Question 12

Cohen: The Mods and Rockers - Negative labelling

Answer 12

Negative labelling of mods and
rockers as folk devils

Question 13

Interactionism and Labelling
Theory - strengths

Answer 13

• Shows that the law is not a fixed set of rules but socially construct
• Shifts focus onto how police create
  crime by applying labels
• Shows how attempts to control can
  create more deviance

Question 14

Interactionism and Labelling
Theory - limitations

Answer 14

• Deterministic – assumes we have no choice but to live up to lab
• Gives offenders a victim status
• Fails to explain primary deviance
• Doesn’t say where power to apply a label comes from
• Fails to explain why labels are applied to some groups but not others