Interactionism and labelling theory of crime

Social Construction of Crime -

No act in itself is deviant, deviance is socially constructed - Labelling theorists 

Becker - social groups create deviance by creating rules and applying them to certain people whom they label 'outsiders'. 

This person then becomes deviant when labeled by others as deviant.

Differential enforcement -

• Police/courts tend to label certain groups as criminal 
• Piliavin and Briar found police decisions to arrest were based on stereotypical ideas about manner, dress, class ethnicity, time & place.

Typifications -

• Cicourel argues police use typifications (stereotypes) - People fitting these typifications are more likely to be stopped and searched and charged
• working class and ethnic minority young people fit the stereotype
• Middle-class young people are less likely to fit the stereotype - parents who can argue on their behalf successfully 

The social construction of crime statistics -

• W.c people fit the typification so more police in w.c areas - means more arrests
• Statistics recorded by police do not give a valid picture of crime patterns
• Cicourel - we can not take crime statistics at face valid and use the, as resources.

The dark figure - the difference between official statistics and the real rate of crime - we do not know for certain how much crime goes undetected, unreported and unrecorded.

The effects of labeling - By labeling a certain person…