Assess the contribution of social action to our understanding of crime and deviance in society
Social action offers an alternative to the traditional structural theories. Social action theorists suggest that the structural theories tend to ignore issues for example the subjective explanations of crime. They explore crime and deviancy using interpretive and ethnographic methodology.
The social action theory is linked with symbolic interactionism, which argues that the social world consists of ‘symbols’ that have a culturally defined meaning to people and suggest appropriate ways of acting. Symbolic interactionism also refers to the way that people develop images of themselves and how they should ‘present’ themselves to other people, this is which is known as the ‘self’. Derived from symbolic interactionism is the labelling theory, championed by Howard Becker. Becker argues that the process of labelling requires an action perceived to be different and that then draws negative attention. In terms of criminality, he suggests that most people commit deviant or criminal acts, but only some people are caught
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For instance, someone is caught shoplifting, they are then labelled criminal and sent to prison, once out of prison the label of criminal is stigmatised and they cannot find a legitimate job, so they have no choice but to shoplift again in order to pay for housing and food. This shows how labels can create a cycle that is difficult to break. Following on from the idea of self-fulfilling prophecy is the idea of master status, which is a person’s main label, which is seen, and other stigmatised, by others before any other label such person may have. Using the example above, the shoplifter’s master status would be ‘criminal’ because that is their most dominant label, and it would be difficult to change or supersede it to another