The processes leading to criminal status are seen as a sequence of status degradation ceremonies which can be represented as a series of games played by the actor (an offender) with the victim or general public, the police, the prosecutor, and the court. During each of these games, a part of the social reality of criminal behavior and criminal status is socially simulated. After each game, the actor has a chance to play the subsequent game in the series if he has lost the previous one. A game is lost if the actor's behavior has been socially constructed as criminal and his status demoted so that in the next game another status degradation is likely. Thus the model that is developed portrays the processes of differential distribution of immunity in society. The model provides a conceptualization of the labeling approach and the principle of marginality (the phenomena of ubiquity, scarcity, and relativity of marginal positions in social groupings). On the basis of the model, a new understanding of criminal justice can be reached. This understanding would allow development of this labeling approach into a theory from which hypotheses could be derived and empirically examined. Tabular data and a bibliography are included. (Author abstract modified)