Interactionism

• Labelling theory 


  States that no act is deviant or criminal itself. It only becomes so when we create rules and apply them to others .
• Differential enforcement of the law

  Interactionists argue that social control agencies such as the police label certain groups as criminal. This results in differential enforcement - where the law is enforced more against one group than against another
• Piliavin and Briar


  Found police decisions to arrest were based on stereotypical ideas about a persons manner, dress, gender, class and ethnicity, and the time and place.
• Cicourel 


  found that police use typifications of the ‘typical delinquent‘
• Lemert 


  argues labelling is the cause of crime and deviance. By labelling certain people as deviant, society encourages them to become more so.

  • primary deviance - involves acts that have been publicly labelled and those who commit these acts do not see them selves as criminals
  • Secondary deviance - results from labelling. people may treat offender solely in terms of their label making it their master status. As a result offender may be rejected by society and forced into the company of other criminals
• The deviance amplification spiral 


  This is where the attempt to control deviance through a ‘crackdown’ leads to it increasing rather than decreasing. This prompts even greater attempts to control it and, in turn, yet more deviance, in an escalating spiral
• Interactionism and crime statistics 


  reject the use of the crime statistics compelled by the police. They argue that the statistics measure what the police do rather than what criminals do