Chapter Six Social Structure Theory

This set of flashcards covers vocabulary and key concepts from Social Structure Theory, including Merton's Typologies, Social Ecology, and the various theories explaining the relationship between economic structure and crime.

Stratified Society

A society where people are grouped according to economic or social class, involving an unequal distribution of wealth, power, and prestige.

Social Class

A segment of the population that shares similarities such as economic level, attitudes, values, norms, and lifestyles.

Social structure theory

The view that a disadvantaged economic class position is a primary cause of crime.

Social Disorganization Theory

A theory that links crime rate to neighborhood ecological characteristics such as poverty and neighborhood disintegration, where institutions of social control like family and school have broken down.

Strain Theory

The view of crime as a function of the conflict between people’s goals and the means available to obtain them, occurring when there is a discontinuity between the means and the ends.

Collective Efficacy

Social control exerted by cohesive communities based on mutual trust, characterized by social integration, interpersonal ties, a willingness to intervene, and the maintenance of public order.

Informal Social Control

A form of social control typically involving peers, families, and relatives using mechanisms such as criticism, ostracism, ridicule, and sometimes physical punishment.

Institutional Social Control

Social control exerted by organizations such as schools and churches.

Public Social Control

Social control exerted by the police.

Conformity

A typology from Robert K. Merton where individuals accept both cultural goals and institutionalized means.

Innovation

A typology from Robert K. Merton where individuals accept the cultural goals but reject the institutionalized means.

Ritualism

A typology from Robert K. Merton where individuals reject the cultural goals but accept the institutionalized means, often doing the bare minimum.

Retreatism

A typology from Robert K. Merton where individuals reject both the institutionalized means and the cultural goals of society.

Rebellion

A typology from Robert K. Merton where individuals reject all traditional means and goals and attempt to redefine them with new means and new goals.

Differential Opportunity Theory

The theory by Cloward & Ohlin that deviance depends not just on a lack of legitimate means, but also the availability of illegitimate means, social networks, and access to alternative means.

Relative Deprivation Theory

The theory that people who perceive themselves as economically deprived relative to people they know and society in general may form negative self-feelings and hostility, motivating deviant and criminal behaviors.