Becker 1963

• Becker 1963: 'social groups create deviance by creating the rules whose infraction constitutes deviance, and by applying those rules to particular people and labelling them as outsiders'
• Moral Entrepreneurs: people who lead a moral campaign to change the law
• Changes due to Moral Entrepreneurs:

  1. creation of a new group of 'outsiders'
  2. creation or expansion of a social control agency to enforce the rule and impose labels
• Platt 1969: idea of 'juvenile delinquency' created by upper class victorian moral entrepreneurs aimed at protecting young people at risk - enabling the state to extend its powers beyond criminal cases to 'status offences' (where their behaviour is only an offense because their age'
• Becker: social control agencies may themselves campaing for a change in law to increase their control. PCSC Act 2022 campaigned by the police for laws to prohibit protests
• What is labelling dependent on?

  1. interactions with agencies of social control
  2. appearance, background and personal biography
  3. situation and circumstances of the offence
• agencies of social control are more likely to label certain groups of people as deviant or criminal
• Pillavin and Briar 1964: police decisions to arrest a youth mainly based on physical cues and judgements about the youth's character. Decisions influences by suspects gender, class and ethnicity