The deviancy amplification spiral and deviancy amplification are terms used by interactionist sociologist to refer to the way levels of deviance or crime can be increased by the societal reaction to deviance itself.

Origin of term

The process of deviancy amplification was first described by Leslie T. Wilkins.

Process

According to sociologist Stanley Cohen, the spiral starts with some deviant act. Usually the deviance is

criminal In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in C ...

, but it can also involve lawful acts considered morally repugnant by a large segment of society. With the new focus on the issue, hidden or borderline examples that would not themselves have been newsworthy are reported, confirming the pattern. This confirmation of the pattern was first documented by Stanley Cohen in ''Folk Devils and Moral Panic,'' a study of the media response to clashes between the Mods and Rockers, two rival subcultures of the time. Reported cases of such deviance are often presented as the ones we know about, or the "

tip of the iceberg Tip of the iceberg may refer to: * Tip of the iceberg, the top tenth portion of an iceberg An iceberg is a piece of freshwater ice more than 15 m long that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open (salt) water ...

, an assertion that is nearly impossible to disprove immediately. For a variety of reasons, the less sensational aspects of the spiraling story that would help the public keep a rational perspective (such as statistics showing that the behavior or event is actually less common or less harmful than generally believed) tend to be ignored by the press. As a result, minor problems begin to look serious and rare events begin to seem common. Members of the public are motivated to keep informed on these events, leading to high readership for the stories, feeding the spiral. The resulting publicity has the potential to increase the deviant behavior by glamorizing it, or by making it seem common or acceptable. In the next stage, public concern typically forces the police and the law enforcement system to focus more resources on dealing with the specific deviancy than it warrants. Judges and magistrates then come under public pressure to deal out harsher sentences and politicians pass new laws to increase their popularity by giving the impression that they are dealing with the perceived threat. The responses by those in authority tend to reinforce the public's fear, while the media continue to report police and other law enforcement activity, amplifying the spiral. The theory does not contend that moral panics always include the deviancy amplification spiral.

Eileen Barker Eileen Vartan Barker (born 21 April 1938, in Edinburgh, UK) is a professor in sociology, an emeritus member of the London School of Economics (LSE), and a consultant to that institution's Centre for the Study of Human Rights. She is the chairp ...

asserts that the controversy surrounding certain

new religious movements A new religious movement (NRM), also known as alternative spirituality or a new religion, is a religious or spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin or t ...

can turn violent in a deviancy amplification spiral. In his autobiography, Lincoln Steffens details how news reporting can be used to create the impression of a crime wave where there is none, in the chapter "I Make a Crime Wave". Button and TunleyButton, Mark and Tunley, Martin (2015) Explaining Fraud Deviancy Attenuation in the United Kingdom. Crime, Law and Social Change, 63: 49-6

/ref> have also presented a theory that offers the opposite to deviancy amplification, which they call deviancy attenuation. In this they argue using the case of fraud that there are some large problems, which those in positions of power are able to attenuate through not accurately measuring it, leading to statistics which underestimate the problem, leading to less resources dedicated to it, reinforcing the belief of those in power it is not a problem.

Origin of term

Process

See also

References

Further reading