Interactionism and Labelling Theory

Question 1

Becker (crime as a social construction)

Answer 1

• a deviant is someone who has had the label applied successfully, deviant behaviour is behaviour that people label
• behaviour of public nudity, considered deviant when in school or work, not deviant on nude beaches
• behaviour of injecting drugs, considered deviant if illegal drugs, not deviant when it is a treatment at hospital

Question 2

evaluation Becker

Answer 2

• doesn’t give us a useful way to tackle crime effectively or how to reduce it

Question 3

Pillivan and Briar (typifications)

Answer 3

• police’s decision to arrest are based on physical cues which are used to judge their character
• based on ethnicity, social class and gender, views people as more criminal based on these labels, and can be a factor in the decision to go through within arrest or not
• eg facial piercings, tattoos, all black clothes, mask or balaclava

Question 4

evaluation Pillivan and Briar

Answer 4

• makes a very general assumption about the police force which is a very negative view of the criminal justice system, not all police officers will operate on typifications

Question 5

Cicourel (negotiation of justice)

Answer 5

• argue that police officers’ decision decisions to arrest are influenced by their stereotypical views of offenders
• police use typifications, common sense theories or stereotypes of what a typical delinquent is like
• the middle class are able to negotiate their justice and are often not prosecuted for the crimes they commit
• Lavinia Woodward: used drugs, stabbed her boyfriend in the leg with a bread knife, threw glass and a laptop at him, was part of the middle class and attended Oxford University, was spared prison rather than a 10 month sentence due to intelligence and wanting to be a heart surgery, jail would have ruined her dream
• Men in Warrington: jailed for inciting a riot that never happened, 4 years imprisonment

Question 6

Lemert (primary and secondary status, master status, deviant career)

Answer 6

• primary: Deviant acts that aren’t publicly labelled
• secondary: both the act and the person are labelled
• master status: labelled successfully and it becomes dominant trait in comparison to other aspects of the person. Society has a hostile reaction to these individuals
• deviant career: people who obtain a master status are forced into a life of crime (eg only 26.5% of prisoners enter employment after release)

Question 7

evaluation Lemert

Answer 7

• failure to explain my crime is committed in the first place
• only explains crime after a person has been labelled

Question 8

Braithwaite (Reintergrative and Disintergrative shaming)

Answer 8

• disintergrative: crime and criminal were labelled bad which leads to the offenders excluded from society
• reintergrative: labels the act but not the offender, not excluded from society so remains integrated, rehabilitation programs in prison / work opportunities
• The policy of reintegrative shaming avoids astigmatic the offender as evil while at the same time making them aware of the negative impact of their actions upon others, this encourages others to forgive them and accept them back in society which avoids pushing them into secondary deviance

Question 9

evaluation Braithwaite

Answer 9

• practical applications: his ideas could be used in the real world to improve techniques of reducing reoffending rates