Symbolic Interactionism

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Symbolic Interactionism

• The Definition of the Situation.
• Action is based on meaning, Meaning is created
  through
• interaction, Meaning is continually
  modified and
• interpreted.
• Process.
• Negotiated reality.
• Not the act or the actor per se, but what
  surrounds and
• follows.
• Social history of labels In a fluid and
  pluralistic society,
• who and what is considered deviant is
  constantly changing.
• Consequences of Labeling.

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Labeling Theory

• - Labeling theorists began exploring how and why
  certain acts were defined as criminal or deviant
  and why other such acts were not.
• - Such theorists viewed criminals not as evil
  persons who engaged in wrong acts, but as
  individuals who had a criminal status placed upon
  them by both the criminal justice system and the
  community at large.
• From this point of view, criminal acts thus
  themselves are not significant, it is the social
  reaction to them that are.

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Labeling Cont.

• Deviance and its control then involves a process
  of social definition which involves the response
  from others to an individual's behavior which is
  key to how an individual views himself.
• Labeling theory focuses on the reaction of other
  people and the subsequent effects of those
  reactions which create deviance.
• When it becomes known that a person has engaged
  in deviant acts, she or he is then segregated
  from society and thus labeled, "whore," thief,"
  "abuser," "junkie," and the like.

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More on Labeling Theory

• This process of segregation creates "outsiders",
  who are outcast from society, and then begin to
  associate with other individuals who have also
  been cast out.
• When more and more people begin to think of these
  individuals as deviants, they respond to them as
  such thus the deviant reacts to such a response
  by continuing to engage in the behavior society
  now expects from them.
• Visibility and Stigma (Master Status)
• Stickiness of labels
• Strained interaction

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Effects of Labeling

• "Looking-Glass Self"
• Self-fulfilling Prophecy
• By categorizing certain people in certain
  situations as deviant, we assume (create) the
  reality of the norms and they reflexively produce
  the deviant reality of the emerging situation.
• Law of Economy Once categorized, we resist other
  interpretations of behavior.
• Law of Consistency Once categorized we will
  organize past and future behavior in line with
  the new category (retrospective interpretation)

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Social Control Theory
The key question in the social control theory is
not why people commit crime and delinquency, but
rather why dont they? Why dont people conform?
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Social Control Theory 2
The most detailed elaboration of modern social
control theory is attributed to Travis Hirschi
who wrote the 1969 book, Causes of Delinquency.
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Causes of Low Self-Control

• We are all born without self-control
• Self Control is established in early childhood
• Causes must be in early childhood
• There is a lack of adherence to social norms
• Biology? NOT according to Hirschi

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Basic Premise
Hirschi argued that delinquency should be
expected if a juvenile is not properly socialized
by establishing a strong bond to society,
consisting of

• Attachment to others
• Commitment to conventional lines of action
• Involvement in conventional activities
• Belief in the moral order and law

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Social Bond Theory Updated
More recently, Hirschi wrote with Michael
Gottfredson that the principal cause of deviant
behaviors is ineffective child rearing, which
produces people with low self-control.