Labelling

• What does Social Construction mean?

  social phenomena that is created by a society and is not naturally occurring result of evolution.
• What’s primary deviance (Lemert)?

  A person commits an act that they know is deviant/criminal but no one else knows so no label is attached.
• What’s secondary deviance (Lemert)?

  The deviant act is witnessed and a label is attached to the person committing the act
• What did cicourel believe?

  Cicourel believes that labelling is what leads to selective law enforcement and negotiation of justice. When a group is labelled as deviant or criminal then the police are likely to focus on that group and therefore reinforce the stereotype.

  He referred to this a typificiations – common sense theories and stereotypes of what is a “typical criminal”
• Who are moral entrepreneurs?

  The people who decide what is morally acceptable within society.

  Examples:

  • Ruling class

  • Governments 

  • Law Makers
• What’s the different types of Relativity of Crime and Deviance (Becker) ?

  • Contextual e.g Nudity
  • Historical Period Homosexuality, Opium
  • Cultural e.g Drinking alcohol in Saudi Arabia and UK
  • Generational E.g Ideas of normal vary between age groups.
• Who are Agencies of Social Control?

   Formal:

  • Police 

  • CJS

  • Courts

  Informal:

  • Peers

  • Society
• What’s self fulfilling prophecy?

  Once a person is labelled a deviant they take on the label and begin to act in the way that they have been labelled.
• What’s deviancy amplification?

  An attempt to control deviance leads to greater amounts of that deviance. Two main examples of this are Stan Cohen’s Mods and Rockers and Jock young’s study of cannabis smokers in Notting Hill.
• What’s masters status?

  This is where the individual is identified by a particular aspect of themselves such as being a criminal and this impacts how they are treated within society. With criminals this can lead to a deviant or criminal career as their label prevents them from accessing legitimate means of achieving social goals.
• What’s the strengths of labelling theory?

  • Emphasises the social construction of crime and deviance

  • Identifies and reveals the role of the powerful in crime and deviance.

  • Shows how deviant careers can be established.
• What’s the limitations of labelling theory?

  • Deviant becomes the victim and therefore not to blame for behaviour.

  • Deterministic

  • Doesn’t explain why people commit the original deviance.

  • Doesn’t explain where the stereotypes come from.
• What happened in the drug takers in Notting hill?

  1. Police arrest drug marijuana smokers for minor offences

     2. The media sensationalise these stories and thus have their Folk Devil ‘The Drug Taker’ and begin to generate a Moral Panic about ‘Drug Takers’.

   3. In response to these stories, the police crack down even harder on these folk devils.
• What happened in the drug takers in Notting hill? (2)

  4. This pushes the ‘Drug Takers’ ‘underground’ – this raises police suspicion & pushes the price of drugs up – the police crack down even more harshly (More Media Coverage).

    5. The ‘Drug Taker’s start resisting arresting arrest, turn to new types of drugs and have to organise themselves better (MORE DEVIANCE)