Symbolic Interactionist Perspective

1. Symbolic Interactionist Perspective Association, Reaction and Interpretation

2. 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

3. 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”

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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.

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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