The effects of labelling

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  • Created by: theshyone
  • Created on: 10-04-18 09:34

Primary and secondary deviance

Lemert distinguishes between primary and secondary deviance. 

Primary - deviant acts that have not been publicly labelled. Lemert argues that it's pointless to seek the causes of primary deviance, so widespread unlikely to have a single cause. an example would be fare dodging. 

little impact on the individual's status or self- concept. 

Secondary - the result of societal reaction - labelling. Being caught and publicly being labelled a criminal can lead to stigmatisation, being shamed, humiliated, shunned or executed from normal society. 

Master status - once a person is labelled, may only be seen in terms of that label. 

the only way to solve a crisis of the person's self-concept and identity is for that person to accept their label. This may lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy. Lemert refers to further deviance due to acting out as secondary. 

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Deviant Career

Secondary Deviance likely to provoke further hostile reactions from society and reinforce the deviant 'outsider' status. This may lead to more deviance or deviant career. Because the person is now labelled as a criminal it's hard to find employment - seeks out other outsiders for support. 

Young - a study of hippy marijuana users in Notting Hill. First, drugs were part of the hippies' lifestyle - primary deviance. Though, labelling and persecution from the police led the hippies' to be outsiders. Retreated into closed groups where they began to develop a deviant subculture. Wearing 'way out' clothes and having longer hair, and drug use central activity.Draws attention to them and self - fulfilling prophecy. 

Not the act itself but the hostile societal reaction that creates serious deviance. 

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Evaluation

although a deviant career is a common outcome in labelling, labelling theorists point out that it is not inevitable. Downes and Rock - Can't predict whether someone who has been labelled will follow a deviant career, always free to choose. 

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Deviance amplification spiral

A term used by labelling theorists to describe a process which the attempt to control deviance leads to an increase in the level of deviance. Leads to greater attempts to control it --- more deviance. In an escalating spiral. 

Cohen's Folk Devils and Moral Panics - societal reaction to the 'mods and rockers' disturbances involving groups of youths at English seaside resorts. 

Press exaggeration and distorted reporting began a moral panic, with growing public concern and with moral entrepreneurs calling for a 'crackdown' the police responded by arresting more youths, while the courts imposed harsher penalties. 

Links to Lemert's secondary deviance and the study Young did on the Notting Hill hippies. 

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Folk devils vs the dark figure of crime

opposites. 

The dark figure is about the unlabelled, unrecorded crime that is ignored by the public and the police. 

Folk devils and their actions are 'over-labelled' and overexposed to public view and the attention of the authorities. 

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Labelling and criminal justice policy

Findings of the constant increase of deviance if the social control gets harsher indicate that the labelling theory has important policy implications. Add weight to the argument that negative labelling pushes offenders towards a deviant career. Logically, reduce deviance, make and enforce fewer rules for people to break. 

For example, decriminalising soft drugs, we might reduce the number of people with criminal convictions and hence the risk of secondary deviance. 

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Reintegrate shaming

Braithwaite identifies a more positive role for the labelling process. 

2 types of shaming - 

Disintegrative shaming - where not only the crime but also the criminal, is labelled as bad and the offender is excluded from society. 

Reintegrative Shaming - labels the act but the not the actor  - as if to say 'he has done a bad thing,' rather than 'he is a bad person.' 

This avoids stigmatising the offender as evil while at the same time making them aware of the negative impact of their actions. Encourages others to forgive each other. Makes it easier for both offender and community to separate the offender from the offence and re-admit the wrongdoer back into mainstream - society. This avoids pushing them into secondary deviance. 

Braithwaite - crime rates seem to be lower in societies with reintegrative shaming. 

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