SOC 1500 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Labeling Theory, Structural Marxism, Property Crime
12 Apr 2016
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Week 4-thursday, october 1, 2015: crime and criminal justice (subjectivist theory) Subjectivist think there is no objective way to looking at crime. Context: people were becoming aware that power and social inequality was having an impact. It"s not the act but the contextual meaning that defines one of being deviant. Reaction: it is in the eye of beholder. Formal labelling: authorities, police, psychiatrist, teachers (if teachers labelled kids dumb, then they did badly) Those being labelled have less social power than those who apply labels. Those with power force the less powerful to do the biding. You get to define what is criminal and deviant. Juveniles-target these people who engage in these activities and label them as delinquent. Convicted as a criminal means your status decreases. H. s becker (1963)-wrote the outsiders-crime is a label, and without defining it, there is no label. Moral entrepreneurs-people with power to create and enforce moral norms that are translated into laws.
