Crime and Deviance - functionalist perspective on crime

Durkheim - social order and cohesion

Social order depends on people conforming to laws - mechanisms of social control (both formal and informal) function to restore order.

Society is also united following criminal acts to come together in public condemnation, which strengthens social solidarity.

Durkheim - crime creates social change

Crime acts to indicate underlying problems in society and signals the need for reform. (e.g. suffragette movement).

Durkheim - boundary maintenance

Crime helps establish divisions between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour within a society, reaffirming social norms

Durkheim - anomie in post-industrial society

Post-industrial societies are more prone to crime due to anomie (social norms are unclear/conflicting).

Traditional societies had 'mechanical solidarity' due to close-knit communities, and informal social control was effective as ridicule and gossip spread quickly to isolate those who didn't conform to norms.

Geographical mobility -> lack of mechanical solidarity within communities. Competition for jobs reduced social cohesion. People were strangers within their community so informal social control was less effective.

Durkheim - crime is inevitable

Even in utopian societies, crime would exist.

Social norms on behaviour and etiquette would be so high that any deviant act would be criminalised because it attracts strong societal disapproval.

Cohen

Media dramatizes evil and creates folk devils (groups which are perceived as damaging to society).

Deviance is a warning to society that an institution isn't functioning properly.

Merton (strain theory)

The American Dream reinforces the importance of economic capital and financial success. Those who can't achieve the American Dream through legitimate opportunity structures formulate deviant solutions.

- Conformity

- Innovation

- Ritualism

- Retreatism

- Rebellion

Cohen - status frustration

Agrees with Merton. Crime occurs as a result of being unable to achieve status by legitimate means -> join a delinquent subculture. Offers an alternative status hierarchy.

Cloward and Ohlin (3 subcultures)

Different neighbourhoods provide different illegitimate opportunities for young people to learn criminal skills and develop criminal careers.

- Criminal subcultures (stable criminal culture)

- Conflict subcultures (unstable professional criminal network)

- Retreatist subcultures (double failures)

Criticisms of Cloward and Ohlin

South: draws boundaries too sharply between subcultures. Drug trade is a mixture of disorganised crime and mafia-style criminal subcultures.

Miller: deviance arises out of an attempt to achieve WC subcultural goals, not mainstream societal goals.

Matza: drift theory

Shaw and McKay

Some neighbourhoods develop a criminal culture that is transmitted between generations.

Sutherland - differential association theory

A person's tendency toward conformity or deviance depends on the amount of contact with others who encourage or reject conventional behaviour. Deviancy is a learned social interaction.

Parks and Burgess - Social Disorganisation Theory

Deviancy is the product of social disorganisation. Changes create instability -> disrupts family and community structures. These become unable to exercise social control over individuals -> deviance.

Messer and Rosenfeld - institutional anomie

American Dream

Obsession with money success and 'winner takes all' mentality exerts pressures toward crime by encouraging an anomaic cultural environment. Lack of adequate welfare = high crime rates

Downes and Hansen

Societies that spent more on welfare had lower rates of imprisonment

Savelsburg

Rise in crime in Poland after the fall of communism in 1989 due to communism's collective values being replaced by new western capitalist goals of individual money success.

Davis - prostitution

Acts as a safety valve for the release of men's sexual frustrations without threatening the family.

Polsky - porn

Safely channels sexual desires away from alternatives such as adultery, which poses a greater risk to society.

Erikson

Society is organised to promote deviance. The role of social control agencies is to sustain, regulate, and manage a certain level of crime.