ected way to live (Capeci and Mustain). Another example of deviance and crime through interactionism is Michael Dowd. Michael Dowd was a New York City police officer who was fired for being corrupt. In his testimony to a commission investigating the NYPD, Dowd told of how his corruption stemmed from seeing other corrupt officers around him. The symbolic interaction theory not only explains why people are deviant, but also why people are not deviant. While growing up people learn what is right and what is wrong through their environment. Most people learn that deviance and crime is unacceptable in society and instead, they follow the social norms and values that others around them hold. An example of this is a child who shoplifts at a young age. If the child is punished for the act, they will most likely conclude that stealing is an unacceptable behavior and refrain from doing it again. The symbolic interactionism theory if very efficient at describing why criminals do what they do, but its use in the study of victimization is very limited. The only possible aspect that can come out of the theory in regards to victimization is that people who become victims may choose to do so based on their interpretations of the symbols that surround them. Perhaps through their interpretation they make it easier for criminals to specifically target them for victimizing.Social order is a highly complex subject. The cause of social order will most likely continue to be studied by sociologists for many years to come. In the mean time, Hobbes social control theory and Meads symbolic interactionism theory have many valid points in explaining how social order can be possible in such a vast society such as the United State of America....
