Social Construction of Crime
- Created by: Ja11en
- Created on: 18-03-15 13:49
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- The Social Construction of Crime
- Introduction
- Labelling theorists are interested in how and why certain acts are defined or labelled as criminal
- It is not the nature that makes it deviant, it is society's reaction to the act
- Becker
- A deviant is someone to whom the label has been successfully applied
- Moral Entrepreneurs: People who lead a moral crusade to change the law
- This 'new law' has two effects
- The creation of 'outsiders' - outlaws or deviants who break the new rule
- The creation or expansion of a social control agency to enforce the rule and impose labels on offenders
- Who gets labelled?
- Not everyone is punished for crime. A persons arrest depends on:
- Their interactions with agencies of social control
- Their appearance, background and personal biography
- The situation and circumstances of the offence
- Theorists show that agencies are more likely to label certain groups of people
- Piliavin and Briar: Officers' decisions were influenced by the suspects gender, class and ethnicity
- Those stopped late at night in high crime areas ran a greater risk of arrest
- Not everyone is punished for crime. A persons arrest depends on:
- Cicourel: negotiation of justice
- Found that officers' stereotypes led them to focus on certain 'types'
- Resulted in law enforcement showing a class bias
- Led police to patrol working class areas more, more arrests, confirming stereotypes
- Probation officers saw youths as likely to offend in the future
- Were less likely to support non-custodial sentences for them
- Found that officers' stereotypes led them to focus on certain 'types'
- Topic VS. Resource
- His study has implications
- Argues that these statistics don't give us a valid picture of patterns of crime
- We should treat them as a topic for sociologists to investigate
- Must not take statistics at face value. Should investigate the processes that created them
- His study has implications
- Introduction
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