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Assess the View That Crime and Deviance Are a Product of the Labelling Process

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Assess the view that crime and deviance is a product of the labelling process (21)

Some sociologists believe that crime and deviance is a result labelling which is when a label is attached to a person or group of people due to their appearance, sex, ethnicity or other factors. It is also leads individuals to believe that labelling theory can create a self-fulfilling prophecy, which is when the person begins to act according to the label and hence it comes true simply through being made.

The interactionist explanation of deviance moves away from looking at the reasons which ‘cause’ deviance and focuses instead on the people who are defined as deviant and the consequences of this labelling. However many would fault this view that crime and deviance is a product of the labelling process, as they believe it over-simplify the process of labelling, and particularly minimizes the role of the deviant. Deviants come across as passive victims in this view.

If a certain group of people have committed crime in the past they are more likely to be thought as to reoffend. Sociologists such as Cicourel investigated typifications, which are stereotypes of young offenders meaning the police, focus their attentions on these types of people. Through typifications the police concentrate on working class areas closely attaching a negative label to them. Once a label has been attached through self-fulfilling prophecy the offenders are more likely to feel victimised so may be obliged to offend again or on the other hand they may try to break the stereotype. Cicourel’s theory provides a solution to a crime problem however realists argue he rejects official statistics too quickly as they show the basic reality of crime.

Cohen argues that the media amplifies crime and deviances making it seem worse than it actually is, for example, the case of the Mods and Rockers in the 60s when

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