Crime Is Defined And Recorded, And Will - 1415 Words

Becker (1963) believes that an act of deviance is created through the process of labelling. This view is based on the idea that societies have rules that determine what is acceptable or unacceptable. These are determined by those in power, such as the government and police. If someone breaks these rules, they are labelled deviant. This essay will look at the implications of this view in regards to how crime is defined and recorded, and will also assess the effect this has on official criminal statistics. Becker (1963: p. 9) states that, â€Å"‘social groups create deviance by making the rules whose infraction constitutes deviance’, and by applying those rules to particular people and labelling them as outsiders†. If the label is successfully†¦show more content†¦It also highlights how biased the procedure of labelling can be. Labelling theory has been criticised because it fails to explain where deviance and an individual’s initial motivation for deviance comes from. It implies that, ‘there would be no deviance without formal intervention’ (Downes and Rock, 2003). Gouldner (1968) argues that the labelling theory invites us to ‘view the deviant as a passive nonentity who is responsible neither for his suffering nor its alleviation-who is more â€Å"sinned against than sinning†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢. This means that the labelling theory doesn’t place responsibility on the criminal’s motivation to commit crime. This is linked to the issue with official statistics on crime, as they cannot provide insight into motives of crime, as they are purely quantitative, meaning that we can’t get insight into the thoughts and feelings of the criminal. This brings up the issue of whether official statistics on crime actually provide any insight into crime. Koffman (1996) argues that official statistics simply show us the social response to crime. This is linked to the media, as the media can cause a heightened public awareness of a social problem, which can lead to reporting. An example of media involvement in creating a societal reaction (moral panics) is Stanley Cohen’s study on the ‘mods and rockers’, in which two