Edwin Lemert and Social Control

• Edwin Lemert (1912-1996) was a theorist of the social reaction approach, emphasizing the social control system's role in deviance, not just the offender.
• Lemert's work was aligned with symbolic interactionism theory.

Social Control

• Social control includes formal aspects like the police, courts, and prisons, and informal aspects like social media, friends, and family.
• Lemert reversed the traditional sociological view, suggesting social control can lead to deviance and crime.
• He focused on 'secondary deviance'.

Primary and Secondary Deviance

• It is important to distinguish between the original causes of deviant actions versus the effective causes.
• Primary deviation arises from various factors and is dealt with through normalization or management without greatly affecting psychology or status. Primary deviation may be excused, rationalized or socially accepted
• Secondary deviation results from societal reactions to primary deviation, causing moral problems like stigmatization, social controls, punishments, and segregation.
• Secondary deviance greatly impacts an individual's psychology, social roles, and self-regard.
• Understanding deviance lies in secondary processes: How does the label affect subsequent behavior?
• Individuals may adopt a negative self-image if they lack a strong one initially and are labeled negatively by others.

Secondary Deviance

• Feedback processes reinforce the self-image relating to secondary deviance.

Primary Deviation

• Initial deviant acts are caused by various external factors and societal norms, making it likely everyone will commit one due to numerous rules.

Secondary Deviation

• There are eight steps that lead to secondary deviation (Lemert, 1951): The act of breaking and established rule, Penalties of the norm breakers will apply to the norm breaker because of the act, A continuation of the primary deviance by the offender, Increased punitive responses by social control agents, Continued deviance by the wrongdoer, often with increasing resentment over the penalties, The acquisition of a "tolerance quotient" in which the community stigmatizes the offender, An amplification of the deviant behavior as a reaction to the stigmatizationFull acceptance of the status of deviant.

Self-Concept and Labeling

• Self-concept is internalized through feedback during repeated labeling, leading from primary deviation to societal penalties, further deviation, stronger penalties, resentment, community stigmatization, strengthened deviant conduct, and ultimate acceptance of a deviant status.

Lemert: Social Control

• Lemert argued that social control stems from deciding someone is dangerous or repugnant, leading to unpleasant actions not applied to others.
• Examples include hurtful humiliation, court appearances, or imprisonment, justified by moral ideologies, laws, and policies.
• Deviants must then accept the institution's rules, potentially leading to further crime.
• The prison/asylum is a special "socio-psychological environment" where the stigma/label is obvious, out in the open and the deviant constantly seek to normalize his actions/thought and the prison seek the opposite.
• To re-enter society, deviants must accept society's definition of them or be seen as 'unrepentant'.
• Asylums and inhuman treatments exacerbated patients' deviance.

Erving Goffman

• Erving Goffman studied micro-level interactions and provided theoretical insights for deviance and crime.

Goffman Defines Stigma

• Stigma is deeply discrediting and seen as a relationship between an attribute and a stereotype.
• The attribute must be defined as negative by "normal people".

Three-Category Typology

• Abomination of the body refers to physical deformities and disabilities.
• Blemishes of character are seen as weak will, dishonesty, and rigid beliefs, including mental disorders and imprisonment.
• Tribal stigma includes race, nation, and religion transmitted through family heritage, including class status.

Types of Stigma

• Awareness of stigma is evident during interactions between stigmatized and "normal" individuals.
• Social actors construct reality through interactions, symbols, and interpretations.

Goffman's Categories of Stigma

• Discredited stigmas are immediately visible (e.g., skin color, deformity), and they are turned into stigma symbols.
• Discredited individuals must manage the tension their stigma causes and be self-conscious.
• Discreditable stigmas are not immediately perceivable (e.g., criminal record, addiction) and can be hidden through information management.
• People become discredited to those who know about the stigma.

Goffman's Stigma Review

• Goffman's definition of stigma is "discredited characteristics".
• Stigma is the relationship between an attribute and a stereotype and the attribute has to be defined as negative.

Managing Stigma

• Passing refers to techniques for managing undisclosed discrediting information.
• Dividing the social world means managing stigma in public settings but not with intimate groups.
• Withdrawal involves removing oneself from social situations.
• It also involves managing the amount of information shared.

Woman's Management of the Stigma of Criminal Records (Grace, 2022)

• Grace interviewed 21 formerly incarcerated women in Ontario about employment post-imprisonment.
• The women were in federal and provincial prisons either on parole or fully released.
• Women could lie, tell the truth, or avoid mentioning records, all examples of "passing."
• Women assessed employer policies before disclosing records.
• "If they do not ask, do not tell" is passing as a non-criminalized person, but carries anxiety.
• Honesty resulted in no callbacks from employers.
• 'Playing honestly' involves partial truths.
• "It's not who I am" means trying to preserve self-image and resist internalization of criminalized stigma.

Murderers' Relative: Managing Stigma, Negotiating Identity (May, 2000)

• The author interviewed 15 relatives of murderers.
• Experiences of stigma by relatives are unique because of the difficulty in understanding the act.
• Family members are viewed as "primary toxic agents", leading to shame and blame as a moral stigma of "failed family".
• Families are aware of public perceptions about them and their new status.

Murderer's Relatives: Managing Stigma

• In open awareness contexts, they manage space by avoiding public spaces. They manage self-preservation and influence others' impressions.
• Dissension involves challenging the 'murderer' label, saying manslaughter should be used. Collective support is sought by the relatives.
• In closed awareness contexts, information is managed and passing is used.
• Re-presentation means withholding specifics. Selective disclosure involves deciding who to tell.
• Therapeutic disclosure is off-loading troubles to garner support, while preventative disclosure involves quicker information disclosure.

Murder Vs. Manslaughter

• 1st degree murder has intent to kill through planning.
• 2nd degree murder lacks proof of planning.
• Manslaughter lacks intent to kill.

Introduction: Deviancy Amplification

• Deviancy amplification spiral: conceptual framework proposed by Leslie Wilkins (1964).
• The concept holds that the reaction to deviant behavior by official agents may increase the deviant behavior rather than reduce it
• Small initial deviation may spiral into ever-increasing significance through labelling and over-reacting.
• Social reaction to "deviant identities" can create further deviance by those groups.

Deviancy Application

• Deviancy is a product of social reaction stages.
• Deviant groups are socially and spatially isolated.
• Information about them is exaggerated and sensationalized in the media, eliciting negative responses and demands for law enforcement.

Deviancy Application Continued

• Public response to reports about deviant behavior creates new deviant identities and contexts for more acts.
• The groups' acts are fed back to the public in distorted forms, stimulating outrage.
• Players amplify and distort acts of the deviant group, leading to new definitions of old crime.

Article By Hall (Not On Midterm; On Final Exam)

• British media linked "mugging" to violent acts by young thrill-seekers.
• Perceived or symbolic threats to society are any act that threatens the moral standard.
• Police practices stricture and amplify.
• Historical shift in official statistics.
• Allocation of resources
• Public concern overwhelm other concerns.

Article: Wiley

• Best way to avoid deviancy is to let youth go and give them back to their families (just give them a warning).
• Study found support for deviancy application.