UNIT 3 QUIZ Flashcards
(40 cards)
Labeling Theory
-people’s behavior are influenced by the label attached to them by society.
-Labeling offenders as “criminals” and/or “delinquents” via state intervention may have unanticipated (& ironic) consequences of causing the behavior it was meant to address.
-The state faced “legitimacy crisis”; citizens no longer trusted competence of government officials.
Frank Tannenbaum
the first to state that interventions “dramatize evil”
* The individual is tagged, defined, and treated as a criminal and acts accordingly.
Labeling Theories: Social Construction of Crime
Labeling theorists urged criminologists to abandon the idea that
behaviors are somehow inherently criminal
* What makes an act criminal is not necessarily the harm that it causes
* Instead, an act is criminal only based on whether act is labeled by the state
* It is the nature of society that determines whether a crime has occurred
* Changes over time, across societies, etc.
Karl Heusenstamm: Black Panther Bumper Stickers experiment
15 students without any driving violations selected (5 White, 5 Black, 5 Hispanic)
* Within just 17 Days, the students had 33 driving citations
Chambliss: Saints and Roughnecks study
Study of two groups of high school boys
* “Saints” came from middle-class families
* “Roughnecks” came from lower-class families in poorer neighborhoods
* Both engaged in delinquency—skipping school, fighting, vandalism–but different consequences
OUTCOME: Most “Saints” went to college and earned professional careers
* Many “Roughnecks” never graduated high school
* Many ended up in prison or dead
Labeling Theory individual characteristics?
Race
Gender
Class
Lemert two types of deviance
- primary deviance
- secondary deviance
Primary deviance
- The criminal rationalizes their behavior as a temporary or sees it as part of an acceptable role
- Does not accept a deviant status or label
Secondary deviance
Caused by the responses of others to the initial illegal conduct
- As societal reaction intensifies, the criminal is stigmatized through “labeling and stereotyping”
- Accepts the deviant status as part of identity
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
A false definition of a situation that evokes a new behavior which makes the originally incorrect conception become true
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy stages
Our actions (towards others) IMPACT
Others beliefs (about us) CAUSE
Others actions (towards us) REINFORCE
Our beliefs (about ourselves) INFLUENCE
Braithwaite’s Reintegrative Shaming Theory
- Has the intention of invoking remorse in the person being shamed
- Shaming can be disintegrative or reintegrative
disintegrative shaming
negative labeling by the justice system that
tends to stigmatize and exclude targeted individuals
reintegrative shaming
involves expressions of community disapproval
followed by reacceptance into the community of responsible law- abiders
Four major policy recommendations: for Labeling Theory
- Decriminalization
- Diversion
- Due process
- Deinstitutionalization
Decriminalization
the reduction of penalties for victimless offenses such as drugs and prostitution.
Diversion
seeks to prevent individuals from criminal justice sanctions.
examples: Welfare/mental health agencies, substance abuse programs, job training classes
* Home incarceration and other community sanctions
Due Process
extends legal protections to offenders.
policies result in fairer and shorter
sentences and reduce the extent and effects of state intervention.
Deinstitutionalization
advocates the use of alternative sentencing
options to lessen the amount of individuals sentenced to prison.
the U.S. has abandoned deinstitutionalization and
chosen instead to incarcerate offenders at unprecedented
numbers
Conflict Theory
Focus on power differentials that exist between individuals and groups
* Roots in sociological and political perspectives
Karl Marx, is a theory that society is in a state of perpetual conflict because of competition for limited resources.
Karl Marx & Friedrich Engles
- Crime was a result of a decrease of social unity
- Could only be reduced if harmony could be regained
- Problem seen in economic terms
- Division of labor is the unjust exploitation of one social class by another
- Proposed a revolution against the system to encourage socialism
- Marx & Engles were at the forefront of conflict sociology
Capitalism
- Conflict is increased by inequality in the distribution of scarce resources
- Those receiving less resources would eventually question the legitimacy of the arrangement
The Communist Manifesto (1848)
destroy capitalism and build socialism
Georg Simmel
Saw conflict as a normal part of life.
- Not a problem, but rather a typical aspect of social order and interactions
- Focused on the consequences of conflict instead of the causes of it