Symbolic Interactionist
Perspective
Association, Reaction and
Interpretation
How is this perspective different?
• Both the functionalist and conflict perspective
portrays deviance as a product of society
• Symbolic Interactionists see deviance as a
process of interaction between supposed
deviants and the rest of society
Differential Association Theory
• Edwin Sutherland- Deviance is learned
through interactions with other people.
▫ Learn how to perform these acts but also how to
define these actions
▫ Someone is likely to become deviant if engaged in
differential association- process of acquiring,
through interactions with others an “excess of
definitions favorable to violation of law over
definitions unfavorable to violation of law”
Differential Association- Example
• Father tells child “it is ok to steal when you’re
poor”
▫ Giving a prodeviant definition
• Father tells child “it is wrong to steal”
▫ Giving an antideviant definition
• If the child picks up more prodeviant definitions,
they are likely to become deviant
The importance of social interaction
• This is the source of the definitions of deviance
• Deviance will arise if interactions with those who
define deviant behavior positively outweigh
interactions with those who define it negatively
How Sutherland explains crimes:
• Theory explains various forms of deviance,
including white collar crime (tax evasion,
embezzlement, and price fixing)
• Deviant acts were shown to result from some
association with groups that viewed the
wrongdoings acceptable
▫ Most people however cannot identify the persons
from whom they learned prodeviant or antideviant
defintions.
Labeling Theory
• Concentrates on the societal reaction to rule
violation and the impact of this reaction on the rule
violator
• Society reacts to a rule-breaking act by labeling it as
deviant
▫ Deviance is then not something a person does but a
label imposed on that behavior
• According to Howard Becker, the deviant is one to
whom that label has successfully been applied
The deviant label
• The label itself has serious negative
consequences for the individual beyond any
immediate punishment
• Once a person has been labeled a delinquent,
he/she may be stuck with that label for life and
may be rejected and isolated as a result
▫ Finding a job and making friends may be difficult
▫ Person may come to accept the label and commit
more deviant acts
Labeling explanations
• Frank Tannenbaum: Children may break
windows, annoy people, steal, and play hooky
and innocently consider these activities just a
way of having fun
• Edwin Lemert: coined the term primary
deviance- refers to these violations of norms that
a person commits for the first time and without
considering then deviant
The influence of labels
• Suppose parents, teachers, and police consider a
child’s prank as a sign of delinquency
▫ May dramatize it and scold the child
▫ May go further, hauling the child into juvenile
detention and labeling the child as bad, a
delinquent.
 Child may develop a bad self-image and try to live up
to this image and become more deviant
• Lemert used the term secondary deviance to
refer to such repeated norm violations
Phenomenological Theory
• To really understand deviance,
phenomenologists say we must study people’s
subjective interpretations of their own deviant
experiences
• Deviants tend to see themselves and their
deviance in some positive way and they behave
accordingly
Phenomenological theory example:
Agnes
• Study done by Harold Garfinkel
• Agnes was a hermaphrodite (person with both
male and female sex organs)
• Raised a boy until high school, developed an
attractive female figure, dropped out of school,
left home and tried to make a new life as a
woman
▫ A year later, she went to UCLA medical center to
request a sex-change operation
Agnes
• Garfinkel found that Agnes saw herself as a
normal woman and that she had a physical
defect and like any other person w/ a deformity,
she wanted it removed
• Her self-concept as a normal woman caused her
to make sure that others wouldn’t suspect her of
having the male organ-never undressed in her
female roommate’s presence
So how does this relate????
• Jack Katz, in an analysis of murderers, robbers
and other criminals found a similarly positive
self-perception that conflicts with society’s
negative view of the deviant
• Murderers tend to see themselves as morally
superior to their victims
▫ If the victim humiliated the murderer, killing
them was justifiable way of defending their
identity, dignity or respectability
How is this theory useful?
• Useful for understanding the subjective world of
deviants
• However, its doubtful that deviants have positive
views of themselves and their deviance