Interactionist AO3

• +It shows that laws are not a fixed set of rules but are social constructions - and so explains why laws change over time and culture.
• +It shifts the focus on how the police and other institutions 'create' crime and emphasises some of the points made by the Marxist theorists - also explains why some classes' behaviour are "labelled' differently than others.
• +It shows how deviance amplification might work and identifies the media's influence over crime.
• -It suggests that labelling is deterministic - but not everyone accepts their labels.
• -Assumes offenders are just passive - it doesn't recognise the role of personal choice in committing crime.
• -Gives the offender a 'victim status' - Realists argue that this perspective actually ignores the actual victims of crime.
• -Tends to emphasise the negative sides of labelling rather than the positive side.
• Fails to explain why acts of primary deviance exist, focussing mainly on secondary deviance.