This document summarizes two classic studies on labelling theory and the social construction of crime and deviance: 1. William Chambliss's (1973) study of two delinquent gangs, the "Saints" and "Roughnecks", found that the middle-class "Saints" engaged in more serious delinquent acts but were not viewed as criminals by police due to their social class. 2. Jock Young's (1971) study of hippie marijuana users in London found that negative police perceptions of hippies as "dirty" and "drug addicts" caused the hippies to unite and develop more deviant norms in response to feeling socially excluded and criminalized.

1. LABELLING THEORY AND THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF CRIME AND DEVIANCE
TWO CLASSIC STUDIES
1 William Chambliss (1973) The Saints and the Roughnecks
This classic study of two American delinquent gangs from the same city provides
evidence that there may be consistent police bias against working-class delinquents
The ‘Roughnecks’ were a group of working class delinquents. They often got
involved in fights, they siphoned petrol from parked cars, and frequently went
shoplifting. Both the police and the community regarded them as a ‘bad bunch of
boys’. The police looked on them with suspicion, and all of them were arrested at
least once.
The ‘Saints’, in contrast, came from respectable middle class homes. None of them
ever received so much as a ticket for a motoring offence from the police, though
they were stopped and questioned on a number of occasions. Chambliss argued
that the ‘Saints’ actually carried out more delinquent acts than the ‘Roughnecks’,
and some of their actions were of a very serious nature. They often drove when
drunk, stealing was not uncommon, and they even placed barricades across roads
just after sharp bends to catch out unsuspecting motorists.
Chambliss concluded from his study that the police frequently do not take middle
class delinquency seriously. The ‘Saints’ did not conform to the police’s image of
typical delinquents. With the help of their middle-class parents when necessary, they
were able to persuade the authorities that their activities were harmless pranks
rather than serious delinquent acts.
2 Jock Young (1971) The Drug Takers: a study of marijuana smokers
A study of ‘hippie’ marijuana users in Notting Hill in London. Young examined the
perceptions which coloured the police view of the hippies, and how their reaction to
the hippies was directed by such perceptions, and the effects upon the hippies of
this reaction.
The police tended to see the hippies as dirty, scruffy, idle, scrounging, promiscuous,
depraved, unstable, immature, good-for-nothing drug addicts. Young argued that
this police reaction transformed the drug-taking activities from casual occasional use
into a central concern because it united the hippies and made them feel different. As
a self-defence mechanism they retreated into a small closed group. ‘Straights’ were
excluded for security reasons (to prevent arrest for drug possession) and because
the deviant self-concept polarised the group and made it more exclusive and inward-
looking.
In this context the hippies developed deviant norms and values. Hair was grown
longer, clothes became more unconventional and drug-taking became a both a
symbol of the group itself as different, and a symbol of defiance in the face of
perceived social injustices.
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