Labelling theories

• What is labelling theory?


  States no act is deviant or criminal in itself only becomes it when we create rules and apply them to others

  • act of smoking cannabis is a crime only because society decided to make a law criminalising it

  We must focus on how certain actions and people get labelled as criminal in the first place
• What is an example of deviance amplification spiral?

  MODS AND ROCKERS

  1. Media exaggeration - caused growing public concern
  2. Moral entrepreneurs - called for a crackdown by police, responded by arresting more youth and provoking more concern
  3. negative labelling - mods and rockers as folk devil, marginalised them further, resulting in more deviance
• Explain what a deviance amplification spiral is

  attempt to control deviance through a crackdown leads to an increase not decrease in crime
• What does Edwin Lemert argue and how does it lead to self-fulfilling prophecy?


  By labelling certain people as deviant, society encourages them to become so

  • explains by distinguishing between primary and secondary deviance - resulting in offender being rejected by society and forced into company of criminals

  Prison - offender is in a society full of criminals allowing them to develop their skills - self fulfilling prophecy has happened
• What do interactionist think about crime statistics?


  Reject it

  Argue that statistics measure what the police do rather than what criminals do

  • police stereotype working class males as typical criminals they will persue them more than middle class white collar criminals
  • statistics become skewed and are just a social construction not a true measure of crime
• What do interactionist say about enforcements of the law?

  How does it lead to differential enforcement of the law?

  Police label certain groups as criminal - resulting in differential enforcement - where law is enforced more against one group than another

  Pilivin and Briar found police decisions to arrest were based on stereotypes

  Cicourel found police use typifications of the typical delinquent

  • working class and ethnic minority are more likely to be arrested
• What do interactionists think about crime?


  Our interactions with another are based on meanings or labels

  • criminal is a label other some people attach to others in their interactions with one another

  Crime and criminals are social constructs that we create through social interactions
• What is primary deviance?


  acts not publicly labelled

  go unpunished

  • travelling on public transport without paying - people don’t see themselves as criminals
• What is secondary deviance?


  Resulted from labelling

  people may treat the offender on the terms of his label which becomes his controlling identity
• What are the strengths of labelling theory?


  shows law is not a fixed set of rules to be taken for granted

  shows how attempts to control deviance can trigger a deviance amplification spiral and creates more deviance
• What are some limitations of labelling theory?

  wrongly implies that once someone is labelled a deviant career is inevitable

  emphasise negative effects on the offener giving them victim status

  fails to explain why people commit deviance in the first place

  fails to explain why labels are applied to certain groups but not others