Labelling theory

Question 1

WHEN IS IT DEVIANT?

Answer 1

• Laws are made from labels
• The police and justice system do not enforce law equally,
  they use labels

Question 2

Proof that crime is a social construct

Answer 2

• Alcohol is illegal in arabic countries but cannabis is legal
• Beastiality is legal in Germany
• Mozambique has a criminal age of responsibility 16, ours is 10.

Question 3

What do labelling theorists argue

Answer 3

• no act is inherently criminal or deviant in itself in all situations and at all times
• Instead, it only comes to be so when others label it as such.
• It is not the nature of the act that makes it deviant, but the nature of society’s reaction to the act.

Question 4

BECKER - quote

Answer 4

“Social groups create deviance by
creating the rules whose infraction
(breaking) constitutes deviance, and by applying those rules to particular people and labelling them as outsiders”

Question 5

Becker - what does he mean

Answer 5

The social construction of crime
- a deviant is someone who the label has been successfully applied
- and deviant behaviour is simply behaviour that people so label.
-Those who are labelled are labelled based on gender, class and ethnicity.

Question 6

CICOUREL - the negotiation of justice

Answer 6

Officers typifications (stereotypes) of
the typical criminal lead to them
concentrate on types of people that
are more likely to offend
- for instance, by patrolling w/c
areas

Question 7

Primary & secondary deviance - who

Answer 7

Lemert

Question 8

Lemert distinguishes between two types of deviance

Answer 8

Primary & secondary deviance

Question 9

Primary deviance

Answer 9

Deviant acts that have not been
publicly labelled as criminal.

Question 10

Secondary deviance

Answer 10

• Deviant acts and individuals that
  are labelled.
• Once an individual has been labelled, people may only see him according to his master status
• which may lead to a deviant career because they struggle to find employment

Question 11

Master status

Answer 11

whereby a criminal is defined by their deviant act

Question 12

Reintegrative and disintegrative shaming - who

Answer 12

Braithwaite

Question 13

Braithwaite theorised Reintegrative and disintegrative shaming

Answer 13

• One is punishment which isolates the individual
• The other punishes them in a way that strengthens their bonds with society

Question 14

Evaluation - Mental illness

Question 15

Howard Becker: A03

Answer 15

challenges the idea that deviants are different from‘normal’ people and it shows the importance of the
reactions of others in creating deviance

Question 16

Howard Becker: Evaluation

Answer 16

Tends to remove the blame for deviance away from the deviant and onto those who define him or
her as deviant: the deviant becomes a victim too

Question 17

Primary deviance examples

Answer 17

Many people break traffic laws, use illegal drugs, etc
- This has few consequences for the individual, because no one (with authority) knows about it.
- However, once an offender is discovered and publicly exposed and the label of deviant is attached then secondary deviance may occur

Question 18

Becker points out that the attachment of the label may have …

Answer 18

major consequences for the individual’s view of themselves: their self-concept and their future actions.
- This is because the deviant label can become a master status

Question 19

Lemert (1972) postmodernist evaluation

Question 20

What did Becker mean?

Answer 20

• What makes something deviant is not what is done, but how people react to what is done.
• The only thing that deviant acts have in common is that they are labelled “deviant” by others

Question 21

Becker is not interested IN

Answer 21

• What causes people to behave in a deviant way.
• Instead, he is interested in why people choose to label their behaviour as deviant and what effect the label has (on the individual and for society).

Question 22

Becker points out that people react differently to the same act depending on the

Answer 22

social context and this influences the label that is placed on the act

Question 23

There may be no consensus over the application of the label because

Answer 23

“one person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter”

Question 24

Being labelled as deviant can lead to

Answer 24

deviance amplification because this label can become our master status

Question 25

Our self concept is

Answer 25

- how we see ourselves - Becker argues that this is created by recognising how others see us - being aware of how we are labelled

Question 26

Deviance amplification & master status links to what?

Answer 26

This relates to the ideas of Lemert (1951) about primary deviance and secondary deviance

Question 27

Cicourel investigated delinquency in

Answer 27

California

Question 27

Lemert (1951) primary deviance and secondary deviance

Answer 27

After someone carries out a deviant act (primary deviance) the reaction of others can lead to further (secondary) deviance.

Question 28

Cicourel tried to account for the ...

Answer 28

Apparent significant difference in delinquency rates between two similar cities and concluded that it was the societal reaction to "delinquency" (so labelled) that differed rather than the acts themselves

Question 29

Cicourel identified...

Answer 29

2 "stages" in the "negotiation" of whether behaviour was deemed deviant or not.

Question 30

Cicourel's two "stages" in the "negotiation" of whether behaviour was deemed deviant or not : STAGE 1

Answer 30

The police's interpretation of someone's behaviour.

Question 31

Cicourel's two "stages" in the "negotiation" of whether behaviour was deemed deviant or not : STAGE 1 --> The police's interpretation of someone's behaviour influenced by ...

Answer 31

stereotypes, but also the context of the behaviour. E.g, drunk and disorderly behaviour might be treated very differently in a student area during Fresher's Week than in a middle-class residential area by people who were not local residents.

Question 32

Cicourel's two "stages" in the "negotiation" of whether behaviour was deemed deviant or not : STAGE 2

Answer 32

If someone is arrested or reported, further interpretations are made based on whether the offender is a "typical delinquent".

Question 33

Cicourel's two "stages" in the "negotiation" of whether behaviour was deemed deviant or not: STAGE 2 --> Factors that impact how the offence is handled ...

Answer 33

Various factors, including social class and ethnicity, will impact on how the offence is handled. Those finally labelled "delinquent" are more likely to be from a w/c background, for example.

Question 34

Interactionists - evaluation

Answer 34

- Any data that might appear to show different levels of offending among different social groups or in different localities is unlikely to be much use: - the data itself is a social construct. - It tells us about the extent to which the label "deviant" is applied rather than informing about different levels of offending.

Question 35

Example

Answer 35

At the time of the London Riots in 2011, some commentators pointed out that then London mayor (Boris Johnson) and PM (David Cameron) had themselves been part of a "delinquent" "gang at university, called the Bullingdon Club Despite the notorious student group being associated with a wide range of illegal behaviour, this behaviour was not subject to the same social control and punishment that it would have attracted had they been poor people rioting, rather than rich people "letting off steam".