Interactionist

• Acts only become criminal when they are labelled that way We must therefore investigate the interactions between people to see how and when and by whom this label is applied.

  • no act is criminal or deviant in itself
  • it is a function of social rules, norms and values
• Deviancy is not a quality of the act a person commits, but rather a consequences of the application by others of rules and sanctions to an 'offender'. Deviant behaviour is behaviour that people so label."
• Becker illustrates how crime is the product of social interactions by using the example of a fight between young people. In a low-income neighbourhood, a fight is more likely to be defined by the police as evidence of delinquency, but in a wealthy area as evidence of high spirits. The acts are the same, but the meanings given to them by the audience (in this case the public and the police) differ. Those who have the power to make the label stick thus create deviants or criminals.
• Malinowski describes how a youth killed himself because he had been publicly accused of incest. When Malinowski had first inquired about the case, the islanders expressed their horror and disgust. But, on further investigation, it turned out that incest was not uncommon on the island, nor was it really frowned upon provided those involved were discrete. However, if an incestuous affair became too obvious and public, the islanders reacted with abuse and the offenders were ostracised and often driven to suicide.
• Interactionists reject stereotyping as it can cause a self-fulfilling prophecy. Stereotyping is a widely held but fixed, over-enlarged image or idea of a type of person. Once a particular act/behaviour has been labelled as deviant, the deviant person starts to view themselves as deviant. This becomes their 'master status' and can lead to a self fulfilling prophecy, which means they start to internalise the label and begin acting and behaving in a way that mirrors the label. In short, the person then becomes the label, in this case deviant or criminal.
• Lemert 1/2

  Primary Deviance

  • behaviour that deports from a social norm yet causes no long-term consequences for the offender.
• Lemert 2/2

  Secondary Deviance

  • violation of social roles that arise from a realignment of an individuals self-concept either with the deviance itself or with a subgroup that is considered deviant in relation to social norms.

  to social norma.
• Cicourel found that officers’s typifications led them to concentrate on certain types of people; resulted in law enforcement showing a class bias.
• Deviancy amplification spiral is the idea that the more police attention that is given to a particular crime, the worse it becomes. Interactionists argue that "crime crackdowns" actually lead to more crime.
• Hippies 1/2

  Young examined the perceptions which coloured the police view of the hippies; as dirty, scruffy, idle, scrounging, promiscuous, depraved, unstable, immature, good-for-nothing drug addicts. Young argued that this police reaction transformed the drug-taking activities from casual occasional use (primary deviance) into a central concern because it united the hippies and made them feel different.
• Hippies 2/2

  As a self-defence mechanism they retreated into a small closed group. 'Straights' were excluded for security reasons (to prevent arrest for drug possession) and because the deviant self-concept polarised the group and made it more exclusive and inward-looking. In this context the hippies developed deviant norms and values (self-fulfilling prophecy)
• People who occasionally smoked (primary deviance) were labelled then retreated into smaller, mare exclusive groups to feel different. Due to this the 'straights’ were excluded so they don't get arrested for drug possession as part of their deviant subculture. The labels given by police to hippies; long hair, unconventional clothes and drug taking became a symbol of the group. The hippies developed deviant norms & values (self fulling prophecy).
• Interactionists reject the use of the crime statistics compiled by the police. They argue that the statistics measure what the police do rather than what criminals do. What the police do - some crimes don't get reported, some don’t get investigated & some don’t get recorded. Therefore there are statistics that measure what police don’t and what criminals do.
• 65% of children with their father in prison would end up in prison themselves. Having a father in prison can affect how they perceive, understand and deal with lots of situations ranging from school to welfare. Labelling theory ends in the self fulfilling prophecy.