Topic 1 Functionalist, strain and subcultural theory

This includes: Durkheim's functionalist theory, Merton's strain theory and the subcultural strain theory

What is functionalism?

Functionalism sees society as based on value consensus. Meaning its members of society shares a common culture. This culture has a set of shared norms and values.

What are the two key mechanism that are needed to achieve social solidarity?

* **Socialisation:** this instils the shared culture into its members
* **Social control:** mechanisms like rewards (positive sanctions) for conformity and punishments (negative sanctions) for deviance.

What is Durkheim’s quote about crime in society?

‘crime is normal… an integral part of all healthy societies’

Why is crime and deviance found in all societies? (2)

* Not everyone is equally effectively socialised into the shared norms and values.
* Different groups develop their own subculture and what the members of the subculture regard as normal, mainstream culture may see as deviant.

What is anomie (normlessness)?

This is the breakdown of any moral values, standards or guidance for individuals to follow.

What is collective conscience?

The set shared beliefs, ideas, attitudes and knowledge that are common to a social group or society.

Name the positive functions of crime that functionalists believe in?

* Boundary maintenance
* Adaptation

What is boundary maintenance?

For Durkheim this explains the function of punishment. The purpose of punishment is to reaffirm society's shared rules and reinforces social solidarity, this is done through the rituals of the courtroom which dramatises the wrongdoing and stigmatises the offender. This reaffirms the values of the law-abiding majority and discourages others from rule breaking.

What is Adaptation?

For Durkheim change starts with an act of deviance. However, in the long run their values may give rise to a new culture and morality. If those with new ideas are suppressed, society will stagnate and be unable to make necessary adaptive changes. Thus for Durkheim, neither a very high nor a very low level of crime is desirable.

What does too much crime do to society? (said by Durkheim)

Too much crime threatens to tear the bonds of society apart

What does too little crime do to society? (said by Durkheim)

Too little prevents change as it is controlling its members too much.

Kingsley Davis (1937)

He argues that prostitution acts as a *safety valve* for the release of men’s sexual frustrations without threatening the monogamous nuclear family

Ned Polsky (1967)

He argues that pornography safely ‘channels’ a variety of sexual desires away from alternatives such as adultery which would pose a much greater threat to the family

What is the other function of crime that is said by Cohen?

It serves as a warning that a institution is not functioning properly

What did the sociologist Erikson say about deviance?

That if deviance performs positive social functions, then perhaps it means society is actually organised so as to promote deviance

Why do societies manage and regulate deviance rather than eliminate it entirely?

Demonstrations, carnivals and more are all license misbehaviour that in other contexts might be punished and in the same way the young may be given leeway to ‘sow their wild oats’.

From a functionalist perspective this may offer them a way of coping with the strains of the transition from childhood to adulthood

How is the functionalist view of crime good?

It shows the ways which deviance is essential to society. It shows us ways which deviance can have hidden or latent functions for society.

What are the criticisms of the functionalist view on crime and deviance?

* Durkheim doesn’t explain the right amount of deviance that is needed for society.
* Functionalists explain the existence of crime in terms of its supposed function -e.g. to strengthen social solidarity- but it doesn’t mean that society actually makes crime in advance with intention
* Functionalism looks at what functions crime serves for society as a while and ignores how it might affect different groups or individuals within society
* Crime doesn’t always promote social solidarity. It may have the opposite effect leading people to become isolated e.g. forcing women to stay indoors for the fear of attack

What does strain theory argue about?

That people engage in deviant behaviour when they are unable to achieve socially approved goals by legitimate means

Who talks about the strain theory?

Merton

What two elements does Merton combine when he adapted Durkheim’s concept of anomie and define them?

* **Structural factors:** society’s unequal opportunity structure
* **Cultural factors:** the strong emphasis on success goals and the weaker emphasis on using legitimate means to achieve them

What does Merton believe deviance is the result of a strain between these two things and define them?

* The goals that a culture *encourages* individuals to achieve
* What the institutional structure of society allows them to achieve legitimately

What is the American Dream?

It is the sequence that American are expected to pursue to have a good life by legitimate means like getting qualifications and a career. It is the ideology that tells Americans that their society is a meritocratic one where there is opportunity for all.

What is the reality of the ‘American Dream’?

Many disadvantaged groups are denied opportunities to achieve legitimately like poverty and inadequate schools block these opportunities

Explain the phrase ‘the strain to anomie’ that is said by Merton

The strain between the cultural goal of money success and the lack of legitimate opportunities to achieve it produces frustration, and this in turn creates a pressure to resort to illegitimate means such as crime and deviance

What does the goal of the American Dream do?

The goal creates a desire to succeed and lack of opportunity creates a pressure to adopt illegitimate means, while the norms are not strong enough to prevent people from going into this temptation

What are the five different types of adaptation to strain

* Conformity: + +
* Innovation: + -
* Ritualism: - +
* Retreatism: - -
* Rebellion: -/+ -/+

What is conformity?

Individuals accept the culturally approved goals and strive to achieve the legitimately. This is most likely amongst the MC

What is innovation?

Individuals accept the goals of money success but use ‘new’ illegitimate means such as theft to achieve it

What is ritualism?

Individuals give up on trying to achieve the goals, but have internalised the legitimate means and so they follow the rules for their own sake

What is rebellion?

Individuals reject the existing society’s goals and legitimate means but replace them with new ones in a desire to bring about revolutionary change and create a new kind of society

How does Merton explain the patterns shown in official crime statistics?

* Most crime is property crime because American society values material wealth so highly
* LC crime rates are higher because they have least opportunity to obtain wealth legitimately

State at least two evaluations of Merton.

* It takes official crime statistics at face value. it over-represents working-class crime, so Merton sees crime as a mainly WC thing
* Marxists argue that it ignore the power of the ruling class to make and enforce the laws in ways that criminalise the poor but not the rich
* It assumes there is value consensus- that everyone strives for ‘money success’- and ignore the possibility that some may no share the same goal
* It only accounts for utilitarian crime- crime for monetary gain- and not the crimes of violence, vandalism and more. It is also hard to see how it could account for state crime like genocide
* It explains how deviance results from individuals adapting to the strain to anomie but ignore the role of group deviance like delinquent subcultures

What is subcultural strain theory?

they see deviance as a product of a delinquent subculture with different values from those of mainstream society

What does Cohen agree with Merton on?

He agrees that deviance is largely a lower-class phenomenon

How does Cohen criticises Merton’s explanation of deviance?

* Merton sees deviance as an individual response to strain, ignoring the fact that much deviance is committed in or by groups, especially among the young.
* Merton focuses on utilitarian crime committed for material gain. He largely ignores crimes such as assault, which may have no economic motive.

What does Cohen find when he focuses on the deviance that happens among WC boys?

He argued that they faced anomie because of a middle class dominated school system. Their inability to succeed in this middle class world leaves then at the bottom of the status heirarchy

In Cohen’s view, how do WC boys solve their frustration of not achieving by legitimate means?

They reject mainstream middle class values and they turn instead to other boys in the same situation, forming or joining a delinquent subculture

According to Cohen, what is delinquent subculture?

It inverts the the values of mainstream society. It praises what society condemns. It functions to offer the boys an alternative status hierarchy in which they can achieve.

What is a strength of Cohen’s theory of status frustration?

It offers an explanation of the non-utilitarian deviance among the working class such as vandalism

What is a weakness of Cohen’s theory of alternative status frustration?

Like Merton, Cohen assumes that WC boys start off sharing the MC success goals, only to reject these when they fail. Meaning he ignore the possibility that they didn’t share the goals in the first place and so never saw them as failures

Who else (other than Cohen) takes Merton’s idea as a starting point?

Cloward and Ohlin

What is Cloward and Ohlin’s theory relating back to Merton’s theory?

Three subcultures

In Cloward and Ohlin’s view what are the key reasons people turn to subcultures?

* Unequal access to the legitimate opportunity structure
* Unequal access to illegitimate opportunity structures

What do Cloward and Ohlin argue about different neighbourhoods?

Different neighbourhoods provide different illegitimate opportunities for young people

What are the three different deviant subcultures that Cloward and Ohlin identify?

* criminal subcultures
* conflict subcultures
* retreatist subcultures

Define criminal subcultures

They provide youth with an *apprenticeship* for a career in utilitarian crime. They arise in neighbourhoods with longstanding and stable local criminal culture with an established hierarchy of professional adult crime

Define conflict subculture

They arise in areas of high population turnover. This results in high levels of social disorganisation and prevents a stable professional criminal network developing. Only illegitimate opportunities available are within loosely organised gangs

Define retreatist subcultures

Known as ‘double failures’ - those who fail in both legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structures. According to Cloward and Ohlin, many turn to a retreatist based subculture based on illegal drug use.

State some evaluations on Cloward and Ohlin’s theory

* They ignore crimes of the wealthy


* Their theory is too deterministic and over-predicts the amount of WC crime
* They ignore the wider power structure, including those who make and enforce the law
* They draw up boundaries too much between the different types that they state. In their theory it would not be possible to belong in more than one of these subcultures at the same time
* Strain theories have been called reactive theories of subculture. This is because they explain deviant subcultures as forming in reaction to the failure to achieve mainstream goals. Such theories have been criticised for assuming that everyone starts off sharing the same mainstream success goal
* Matza claims that most delinquents are not strongly committed to their subculture, as strain theories suggest, but merely drift in and out of delinquency

What does the recent strain theorist suggest about young people and what are some examples?

They suggest that young people may pursue a variety of goals other than money success. Including: popularity among peers, autonomy from adults, or the desire that young men want to be treated like ‘real men’.

What does the sociologist Messner and Rosenfeld’s institutional anomie theory focus on?

The American Dream

Downes and Hansen (2006)

In a survey of crime rates and welfare spending in 18 countries, they found societies that spent more on welfare had lower rates of imprisonment.

How does the study that Downes and Hansen did support the view that Messner and Rosenfeld has?

As societies that protect the poor from the worst excesses of the free market have less crime

What does Miller argue about?

That the lower class with its own values and culture passed down through the centuries, not a subculture

What are the 6 focal concerns that Miller states?

* Smartness - witty
* Trouble - violence
* Excitement - thrill seeking
* Toughness - masculine, strong
* Autonomy - don’t get pushed around
* Fate - accept life

What are some evaluations of Miller and 'Focal concerns’?

* Too deterministic - he talks about the idea of how you’re born into a subculture
* What about interaction with other classes e.g. through school
* Don’t the ‘focal concerns’ apply to males across all classes