Interactionism and Labelling Theory Do not look at how social systems and social structures direct behaviour. Look at how people interact in terms of meanings and definitions.

Becker Deviance is the result of the interaction between 2 groups in society – deviants and non-deviants. Any act can be defined as deviant if one group of people can successfully apply the label of deviant to another label.

Who can apply the label? An act only becomes deviant when others perceive and define it as such. Teachers, the police and the mass media can apply labels. Stereotypical images are established and predictions can be made about future behaviour.

People respond differently to deviance. Kitsuse (1962) interviewed 75 heterosexual students to elicit their responses to (presumed) sexual advances from gays. Responses ranged from complete tolerance to bizarre and extreme hatred.

Most people commit deviants acts of some kind Only some people are caught and stigmatised for it. Labelling theorists look at the reaction to and definition of deviance. Once labelled various consequences occur for the individual

Lemert PRIMARY DEVIANCE The widespread acts of deviance we all engage in at some time during our lives but do not lead to public labelling. SECONDARY DEVIANCE Labelling theorists are concerned with this form of deviance. Public labelling leads to problems for individuals forcing them to embark on secondary deviance.

Societal Reaction 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. Labelling people as deviant will tend to mark them out. Deviant becomes their ‘master status’ which overrides all other statuses.

The individual is seen as a criminal rather than a father, friend or worker. May be rejected by conventional society and embark on a deviant career. Public labelling may result in a self-fulfilling prophecy whereby the person labelled deviant not only commits further deviant acts but also accepts the label.

Jock Young Studied marihuana users in Notting Hill during the 1960s. The police targeting of a group whose lifestyle included smoking marihuana served to widen the differences between the hippies and conventional society.

In the process, drug taking, which had been ‘essentially a peripheral activity’ became of ‘greater value to the group as a symbol of their difference and of their defiance against perceived injustices’ Young A deviant subculture developed. Saw themselves as different from non- drug takers.

Reiss (1961) Some can reject the label. Reiss studied young male prostitutes. Although they engaged in homosexual behaviour, they regarded what they did as work and maintained their image of themselves as being ‘straight’ despite engaging in sex with men.

Reiner, 1994 Acts labelled as deviant tend to be committed by certain types of people. Police target certain groups. Police have perceptions of the ‘typical criminal’. Young men from lower social classes and from certain ethnic minority groups.

Cicourel, 1976 Police and juvenile probation officers in California saw the ‘typical delinquent’ as ‘coming from broken homes, exhibiting “bad attitudes” towards authority, poor school performance, ethnic group membership, low- income families and the like’. Young people who fitted this picture were more likely to be arrested and charged.

Cicourel – Negotiation of Justice Police stop and search someone on the interpretation of a ‘suspicious character’ May lead arrest depending on the appearance and manner of the person questioned. If arrested further action may depend on details of home background, school report. If charged and prosecuted the outcome may rest on the same factors.

Cohen and Short The label deviant is less likely to be applied to middle-class youths. The act may be the same but the meaning is different eg a sprawl

Evaluation - Advantages Drawn attention to the importance of labelling and societal reaction. These processes can generate deviance. Shows that certain types of people are singled out for labelling. Shows that labelling results from the definitions and perceptions of the agents of social control, from their perceptions of the typical deviant.

Evaluation - Disadvantages Do not look for the origins of deviance. Does not explain why some types of people are labelled as deviants rather than others. Where do the definitions come from. Does not consider who makes the rules whose infraction constitute deviance. Who makes the rules?

Amplification of Deviance Sociologists who do not share the same theoretical perspectives as the interactionists have also looked at societal reaction. Stan Cohen (1987) looked at societal reaction to disturbances involving mods and rockers which took place at Clacton in 1964.

The mass media represented these disturbances as a confrontation between rival gangs ‘hell bent on destruction’. However Cohen discovered that the amount of serious violence and vandalism was not great and most young people who were there did not identify with either mods or rockers.

The mass media had presented a distorted picture of what had happened. Media coverage led to considerable public concern which led to deviance amplification. Police became sensitised to the problem and this led to more arrests, the media reported more deviance and young people were more likely to identify with either mods or rockers.