The labeling approach re‐examined: Interactionism and the components of deviance

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Abstract
The labeling perspective has been one of the most influential in the field of deviance over the past two decades. Firmly rooted in the thought of George Herbert Mead and Herbert Blumer, it is also referred to as the interactionist approach. The purpose of this paper is to move the interactionist perspective on deviance beyond political debate and piecemeal research to a slight measure of theoretical consensus. First, the development of the perspective will be reviewed (examining the separate strands of symbolic interactionism, interactional conflict, and phenomenological sociology). Second, an interactionist model of the components of social deviance will be presented (a total of eight components will be developed). Finally, important conceptual distinctions will be noted on the basis of the proposed model. Included here are moral entrepreneurs, primary and secondary deviance, role engulfment, and master status. The interactionist tradition is the heart of deviance theorizing. Clear conceptualization is needed to draw its various strands together.

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