Interactionist Theories of Crime and Deviance - Lemert | A Level Sociology

welcome to this tutor to you sociology topic video looking at interactionist theories of crime and deviance focusing on the work of edwin lemert lamont took a different perspective on crime and deviance to other sociologists rather than focusing on the causes of deviance le mer was focused more on the reactions of society to deviant

behaviors he suggested that societal reaction was one of the main factors behind crime suggesting that those committing criminal or deviant activities were likely to be influenced by the social reactions of others to their acts lemur further suggested that initial or primary active deviance could lead to further deviance what he called secondary deviance based upon the

societal reactions he argued that sociologists should look to investigate the impact of societal reaction to deviance in order to explain wider criminality lament suggested it was more important to examine the social reactions to deviance and to examine the causes of deviance itself this he argued gave sociologists a better understanding of why people

continue in a career of criminality and the impacts it had on controlling the behaviors of others the stigmatization of deviant activities for example in the merch research he examined concepts such as stuttering and the impacts this had on individuals was more important to understand and deviance itself the murder categorized deviants as either primary or secondary referring to

the act of people deviating in the first instance as primary deviants lamert like becker suggested that it was the reactions of society that decided whether an activity was deviant or not what he referred to as the societal reactions to deviance lamp was more interested in how people perceived the individual who had committed the act and how they came to