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LABELING THEORY

LABELING THEORY. Today we are learning - why labelling theorists regard crime and deviance as socially constructed. - how the labelling process works and the consequences for those who are successfully labelled . What do you call a chav in a box. INIT.

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LABELING THEORY

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  1. LABELING THEORY Today we are learning - why labelling theorists regard crime and deviance as socially constructed. - how the labelling process works and the consequences for those who are successfully labelled.

  2. What do you call a chav in a box INIT

  3. What do you call an Eskimo chav in a box INUINIT

  4. INUITS of Canada

  5. INUITS of Canada • Lemert investigated the longstanding problem of chronic stuttering or stammering among the Inuits • He argued that this is caused by the overemphasis on ceremonial speech making • Failure to speak well is a source of shame and humiliation • Children with the slightest speech difficulty became overanxious because of peer group and parental expectation • This anxiety made the situation worse and led to chronic stuttering, in other words public labelling turned a minor problem into a major one

  6. Task 1: The nature of Deviant acts. • Read page 81 down to "Who gets labelled' Deconstruct the following 
sentences • "No act is inherently deviant in itself. It is society's 
reaction to the act that makes it deviant." • “Social groups create deviance by creating the rules 
whose infraction (breaking) constitutes deviance, and 
by applying those rules to particular people and 
labelling them outsiders”

  7. The labelling process & the 
effects of labelling • Read pages 82/83 explain the key concepts. • Primary Deviance • Secondary Deviance • Self Fulfilling Prophecy • Self Concept • Deviant Career • Deviant subculture • Master status

  8. Primary and secondary deviance • Edwin Lemert (1972) makes the distinction between primary and secondary deviance. • Primary deviance refers to acts which have not been publically labelled. Isolated, relatively insignificant rule-breaking • Secondary deviancerefers to acts which have been publically labelled as deviant and to the defiance which is generated by this labelling. the construction of deviant identity as a result of social REACTION to the initial act.

  9. LEMERT Primary deviance To Lemert it is pointless to seek the causes of primary deviance because it is so widespread that it is unlikely to have a single cause, and in any case it is often trivial. For example fare dodging which often goes unpunished. Offenders often rationalise their wrong-doing with justifications like ‘everyone else is doing it’ or ‘I had a moment of madness’ or ‘laws are there to be broken’.....

  10. LEMERT Primary deviance Therefore acts of primary deviance have little or no bearing on the individual’s status or self-concept. In essence primary deviants do not generally see themselves as deviant.

  11. LEMERT Secondary deviance The problem is of course when the deviance is labelled, and some deviance is always labelled by society. Secondary deviance is the result of societal REACTION (which is what labelling is of course).

  12. LEMERT Secondary deviance Being caught and publically labelled as a criminal or deviant can involve being stigmatised, shamed, humiliated, shunned or excluded from mainstream society. Others may come to see that person only in terms of the label. This becomes their MASTER STATUS or controlling identity overriding all others.

  13. LEMERT Secondary deviance In the eyes of the world the person is no longer a colleague, father, or neighbour...that has changed into thief, criminal, gangster, druggie....in other words an OUTSIDER. This can provoke a crisis for the individual’s self-concept or sense of identity. This may be resolved by acceptance of the deviant label so the individual comes to see themselves as the world sees them – the SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY. Now the individual acts out or lives up to the deviant label causing further deviance.

  14. LEMERT Secondary deviance Lemert refers to the further deviance which results from acting out the label as SECONDARY DEVIANCE In this theory then deviant identities are then created and constructed through INTERACTIONS between social control agents (e.g. the police) and suspects.

  15. Divide you into 4 groups Chav Thief Area seen as deviant or criminal e.g. Colliers Avenue, SelseyThe Bronx in New York…. Junkie • CAN WE BE REALLY CLEVER AND LINK THE LABELLING PROCESS IN THESE CASES TO • Lemert’s distinction between primary and secondary deviance • Societal reaction? • Actions of social control agents like the police • Self-fulfilling prophecy? • Master status?

  16. Studies by William Chambliss, Jock Young.How can we link this evidence to: • Lemert’s notion of a distinction between primary and secondary deviance – where is the primary deviance and secondary deviance? • Societal reaction? • Labelling? • Self-fulfilling prophecy? • Master status?

  17. Labelling Theory challenges traditional theories but turning traditional ideas on their head • Why is some behaviour defined as criminal or deviant in some contexts but not on others? • Why are some individuals or groups more likely to be defined as deviant? • How do the responses of the agencies of social control effect individuals future actions?

  18. Societal reaction • The reaction of society-the way others react to someone labelled as deviant-may have a dramatic effect on that person’s status and identity and may lead to further deviant acts. • Jock Young’s (1971) study of hippie marijuana users in Notting Hill during the 1960s illustrates this process.

  19. Jock Young Deviancy Amplification Spiral • C or I → C or I • → H • →A • → K • → G • → B • → D • → J • → F • → E

  20. How does Jock Young's Study of "DrugTakers' illustrate the concepts of secondary deviance and deviant career? • How does it illustrate that drug taking is socially constructed?

  21. Moral Panic: Stan Cohen developed the concept 'moral panic' to understand the role that media play in the Amplification of Deviance

  22. 1. Tabloids report an activity/incident. Sensationalist & Exaggerated headlines 2. Follow up stories identify a social group as a problem Folk devils 3. Over simplified explanations 4. Moral entrepreneurs react 5. Rise in reporting - issue becomes part of public 
consciousness 6. Authorties clamp down - Social Control 7The group may react to the clamp down - Amplification 8. More arrests,moral panic becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy

  23. Deviance Amplification. • In what ways does the reporting of knife crime fit Cohen's model of a moral panic?

  24. Becker There is nothing intrinsically criminal about any act, it only becomes so when the label is tagged to it. ‘deviant behaviour is behaviour that people so label’ • Becker – saw the labelling process as creating criminal careers. The reaction of society is crucial here - The way others react to someone labelled as deviant may have a dramatic effect on that person’s status and identity and may lead to further deviant acts: • Societal reaction • Labelling • Self-fulfilling prophecy – the prediction becomes the truth • Master status - status which overrides all other statuses.

  25. LABELLING THEORY The work of Lemert and Young illustrate the idea that it is not the act itself, but the hostile SOCIETAL REACTION by the social audience that creates serious deviance. Ironically therefore the social control processes that are meant to produce law-abiding behaviour may in fact produce the very opposite. Note the last concluding line in Chambliss’s study The Saints and the Roughnecks “….One lesson is inescapable: The less the intervention in the minor crimes of juveniles the better off they and society will be.”

  26. FREE WILL / NOT DETERMINSTIC Labelling theorists are well aware that they can be accused of being deterministic (those labelled will inevitably become more criminal and/or deviant) and that their theories might offer a form of excuse for nasty crime. That is why they are keen to stress that there is nothing inevitable about the labelling process. Downes & Rock (2003) argue that we can never predict whether someone who has been labelled will follow a deviant career because they are always free not to deviate further TASK: write down two ways in which a person might resist, reject or throw off a label

  27. What do you think are the strengths and weakness of the Social Action Approach to Crime and deviance?

  28. Quick Check Questions • Please answer the questions on page 85. • next • Labelling & The ASBO • In pairs explain how Interactionists might criticize the 
ASBO as a policy to deter anti-social behaviour: • Use the concepts. • - Secondary deviance • -Master Status • - Self-Fulfilling Prophecy • -Stigmatisatation • Can you devise a more effective policy for tackling anti 
social behaviour?

  29. Homework • Complete the exam question on page 85 • Just for fun what this

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