“Symbolic Interactionist Perspectives on Deviance
As we discussed in Chapter 4. symbolic interactionists focus on social processes, such as how people develop a self-concept and learn conforming behavior through socialization. According to this approach. deviance is learned in the same way as conformity-through interaction with others. Although there are a number of symbolic interactionist perspectives on deviance, we will examine four major approaches-differential association and differential reinforcement theories. rational choice theory. control theory, and labeling theory.
