Social explanations of criminal behaviour

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What is the labelling theory?
When a child comes from a family with a history of criminal behaviour, the child will also be associated with being a criminal, for example if the child snatches, they may be labeled as a thief, next time something goes missing, the child is blamed
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What did Wilkin find?
He found that children labeled as deviant will start to then act according to their label as they are being treated like that anyway, they will also tend to associate with other children with the same label
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What theory does the labelling theory link to?
The social identity theory
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Strengths and weaknesses of labelling theory
S- Most studies used large sample so can be generalised, some of the data is objective and can be applied, W- studies do not show a cause and effect so we cannot say for definite that labelling leads to criminal behaviour
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What is the self-fulfilling prophecy/ pygmalion effect?
It is a theory that explains why people perform better when expectations are put on them, it proposes that there is a cycle between our actions and what people think about us and their actions
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Explain the pygmalion effect cycle
Our actions effect what people think about us which in turn effects how they act towards us, this then reinforces our beliefs about ourselves which influences our actions
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How does the cycle start?
It can be when someone is labelled or when there are certain expectations placed onto an individual
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What did Farrington find?
He studied boys from families with criminal history so there was an expectation that these boys will also become criminals, they learn that this is normal behaviour and e.g they steal something because they get treated like they are going to steal it
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What did Jahoda find?
She looked at the effect of tribal names, the males born on Wednesday were named a name meaning "aggressive" and those born on a monday were named "mild-mannered", those boys born on wednesday had higher arrest rates (22% compared to 6%)
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Supporting evidence
Farrington and Jahoda
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Conflicting evidence
It only considers nurture side of things, not nature
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Other explanations
Biological explanations or social learning theory
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Usefulness
It helps explain the development of prisoners who may have internal labels as well, they can receive help around this
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Testability
Unethical to manipulate studies so it relies on correlational studies, cant establish cause and effect relationship
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What does the social learning theory suggest?
That children learn to behave a certain way by observing others
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How does Farringtons research relate to the social learning theory?
The children would have grown up observing criminal behaviour and therefore learnt that behaviour thinking it is okay to behave that way
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What did Sutherland suggest?
That children learn attitudes by observing so if a child observes their family treating crime as okay, they are more likely to engage in crime
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How does Banduras study relate to criminal behaviour?
When the children observed the adults being violent to the bobo doll, they did the same, this could suggest that if children see a role model taking part in a criminal behaviour, they may copy
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

What did Wilkin find?

Back

He found that children labeled as deviant will start to then act according to their label as they are being treated like that anyway, they will also tend to associate with other children with the same label

Card 3

Front

What theory does the labelling theory link to?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

Strengths and weaknesses of labelling theory

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

What is the self-fulfilling prophecy/ pygmalion effect?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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