Week 10 - labelling Theory Flashcards
What are the basic principles of labelling theory?
Also known as the societal reaction to school
Deviance attributed to those who react to behaviour
Labelling is not concerned with motivation for deviant behaviour
What social events influenced labelling theory?
Civil rights movement (inequality, segregation, protests)
Great society programs (policy implications that arise from scholarly people who identified these issues)
Distress of government
What is the intellectual heritage of labelling theory?
Chicago School’s symbolic interactionism
Critique of UCR (interviews) (mostly committed by med, gun-related crimes, lower class)
Development of self-report methods (academics, scholarships)
What did Howard Beckers’s book (outsiders) say?
who can make and enforce rules are in power
Moral Entrepreneurs - (rule creators and rule enforcers) (MADD)
Who is Emily Murphy
Canadian moral entrepreneur
Advocated the need to change Canadian narcotic laws.
Contributed to the criminalization of marijuana
What are Beckers’s 4 types of Deviant Behaviour?
- Falsely accused: Someone who is obedient but is perceived as falsely accused
- Pure Deviant - Someone who breaks the rules and is perceived to be deviant
- Conforming - Someone who is not perceived as deviant
- Secret Deviant - Someone who is not perceived to be deviant but is actually breaking the rules is called (Quite common)
What are the two forms of labelling theory?
Societal Reaction (Original version)
- How & who labels are applied
- How labels affect them
Secondary deviance look ( later addition)
- What does the label mean to the person labelled
- How the labels create further deviant behaviour
What is the focus of societal reaction?
De emphasized the criminal and focused on agencies
Realized that labelling delinquent causes STIGMA and subsequent negative events
What factors affect the societal reaction?
The time when the act is committed (history)
Who commits the act, who is the victim
Society’s perceptions of consequences of acts (drinking and driving)
What is retrospective interpretation in secondary deviance?
Re-examine previous behaviours
Reinterpret them as deviant because of new information
Make label fit person’s identity
What are the two sources of secondary deviance?
- Feedback from society
- Week self-concept (person accepts label as their identity)
What is Becker’s concept of Master Statis?
Labels are not all the same, some are more dominant than others
Master status - lose all qualities about a person and transforms their identity, they will always be “ex-con” “criminals”
