Labeling
Theory and Ethnomethodology
(these
ideas drawn from Goode, 1994-2008
chapter 4;
and Pfohl, Images of Deviance and Social Control, 1985. See the disclaimer)
Theoretical Perspective rooted in
Symbolic Interactionism
- The Definition of the Situation.
- Verstehen (insiders view, Goode,
"On Behalf of Labeling Theory").
- Action is based on meaning, Meaning
is created through interaction, Meaning is continually modified and interpreted.
- Focus on the situational dynamics
out of which meaning emerges.
- Social
Response
Focus:
- The How rather than the Why.
- Process.
- Negotiated reality.
- Not the act or the actor per se,
but what surrounds and follows.
- Social history of labels: In a
fluid and pluralistic society, who and what is considered deviant is constantly
changing.
- Construction and application of
labels: Moral Entrepreneurs, Official Agents of Control, and Organizational
Structure.
- Consequences of Labeling.
Key Contributors
George Herbert Mead (1934): "The
self as a social product."
Frank Tannenbaum (1938): differential
perspectives and "Tagging."
Edwin Lemert (1951): Primary and
Secondary Deviance.
- Secondary deviance as a dynamic,
interactional product; a response to societal reaction.
- Societal reaction initiates sociological/psychological
processes which sustain deviance, make it more central in the life of the
"deviant."
- Impact on self-concept.
- Begins moral "career."
- Leads to the formation of sub-culture
and learning processes.
- Power to resist the impact of
the label is differentially stratified throughout society. Impacts some groups
more than others.
- Lemert: "Paranoia and the
Dynamics of Exclusion"
- Many so labeled are the product
of strained interaction.
- Individual often properly realizes
exclusion.
- Distorted communication.
- Lack of feedback.
- Requires strong response==>
strain==> intensifies others perception==> further exclusion.......
- Audiences: Reiss--
the role of witnesses in police arrest decision making.
- Contingencies: Extra-behavioral
factors
- Indexicality
(see also)
- Chambliss:
The Saints and the Roughnecks-- Social Class.
- Defining
Mental Disorder:
Gender, Urban/rural.
- Bias.
- Piliavin
and Briar: Demeanor -only 2 of 45 deferential youths arrested vs. 14 of
21 antag.
- Derek Phillips:
Help seeking behavior and social distance.
- Visibility and Stigma (Master
Status)
- Problem of contagion
- Stickiness of labels
- Strained interaction
- "Being on"
- Impression management
- Exclusion
- Sub-culture Formation: "Corporate
life" and Deviant Groups (Stanford Lyman distinquished
these goals; alienative and conformative, in his "The Asian in the West,"
1970, see Pfohl, 1985, page 316 for additional information)
- Alienative-instrumental (Queer
Nation, WITCH Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy
From Hell)
- Alienative-expressive (Moonies,
People's Temple--Jim Jones))
- Conformative-instrumental
(COYOTE,
NORML)
- Conformative-Expressive (AA,
Weight-Watchers)
- Retrospective Interpretation (1) (2) (3)
- Reflexivity
(see also)
- "Looking-Glass
Self"
- Sense of
the Situation
- Self-fulfilling
Prophecy
- Documentary
Interpretation (past records, etc. ==>present reality)
(see also)
- Would you hire
this guy? (schwartz and Skolnick in 1962, and Buikhuisen
and Dijksterhuis in 1971, see Liska, page 126-7)
Forms the foundation for understanding
how deviant labels are constructed as a "practical accomplishment"
in everyday interactions.
- Methods people use to accomplish
a reasonable account of what is happening in a social interaction, how we
make sense out of people and their actions. How we create a structure for
our interactions.
- By categorizing certain people
in certain situations as deviant, we assume (create) the reality of the norms
and they reflexively produce the deviant reality of the emerging situation.
- Typifications:
common sense constructs through which we organize our perceptions
of others and the world.
Cicourel, "Good and Bad Boys"
- Good Boys- Act does not equal
a cue, good boy in bad situation, "normal" misbehavior.
- Bad Boy- Act is a cue, reveals
underlying problem, bad situation (home, school) produces bad boys, "serious"
problem that needs handling.
Rosenhahn: Being Sane in Insane
Places
Phillips: Help Seeking Behavior
Sudnow: Normal Crimes
- Typification used by PD to
organize a variety of offenses of a given class into homogeneous categories
in order to efficiently process cases (plea bargain)
- PD's as overworked, understaffed,
part of a "Court Room Work Group."
- Premise: If arrested, then must
be guilty of something, therefore needs to be punished. Plea Bargain satisfies
both parties.
- Rule of Economy: Once categorized,
we resist other interpretations of behavior.
- Rule of Consistency: Once categorized
we will organize past and future behavior in line with the new category (retrospective
interpretation)
- Peyrot (1995) and making the MMPI fit (see Liska, 1999,
pages 164-165).
Focus on Organizations
and Professional Interests
Douglas: Suicide
- Medical Examiners and Coroners
- Politics and vested interest
- Statistics as key to understanding
organization of social control rather than the "objective reality"
of deviant behavior.
- Statistics produced by organizations
become a topic of study in their own right.
Other organizational studies:
- Wilson: Police departments-
Large and bureaucratic vs. Small and informal.
- Index Crimes vs. White Collar
- Shoplifting/employee fraud
- Mental Disorder: Male vs. Female
- Breast feeding: Leleche vs DFS
Policy:
- Decriminalize Victimless Crimes:
Avoid label, can't deal with them anyway, leads to police corruption, waste
of resources (money and time spent on more problematic offenses).
- Diversion: Not in order to punish,
but again; to avoid official label. Success of diversion is questionable,
but so is success of incarceration, and the costs of diversion programs is
less.
- Organizational reform and restructuring.
URL: http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/200/labeling.html
Owner: Robert O. Keel rok@umsl.edu
References and
Credits for this Page of Notes
Last Updated:
Monday, March 10, 2008 1:26 PM