Functionalists, strain and subculture theories

What do functionalists believe?

functionalists believe that everyone must respect norms and follow rules or society cannot function (value consensus

)What do functionalists believe value consensus achieves

the feeling of unity and shared purpose that binds people together in a society, creating a sense of belonging and shared responsibility (Social solidarity

)What are the two things functionalists argue are needed to achieve this social solidarity

• socialisation
• social control (such as reward systems and punishments

)Durkheim believes crime is inevitable and fulfils two important positive functions, what are they?

• Boundary maintenance, crime unites society by reinforcing their shared norms and values, condemnation for the wrongdoer
• Adaption and change, Durkheim believed change starts with acts of deviance, new cultures and morality can arise from deviance, if not society will stagnate and be unable to make necessary adaptive changes. Too much crime = threatens the bonds of society. Too little crime = society is repressed and too controlling of its members.

What is an argument that thinks some deviance is positive

Ned Polsky argues that pornography safely channels a variety of sexual desires away from alternatives such as adulatory, which would pose a much greater threat to the family

Criticisms of functionalists

• crime doesn't always unite society, sometimes the opposite e.g. women being afraid of going out in the dark
• (Ned Polsky argument) yes it's functional for men but fails to think about the women being exploited in that industry

What is Merton's strain theory?

Deviance arises from society having socially acceptable goals but not having the legitimate means to achieve them e.g. wanting to be rich but not having a high paying job

What two explanations did Merton have for deviance

• structural factors (societies unequal opportunity structure)
• cultural factors (the strong emphasis on success goals and the weaker emphasis on using legitimate means to achieve them

)What is the ideology of the 'American dream'

Tells Americans that their society is a meritocratic one where anyone who makes the effort can get ahead

Why is this ideology an issue

Because many disadvantaged groups are denied opportunities to achieve legitimately, this leads to frustration and creates pressure to resort to illegitimate means like crime and deviance.

What are the types of adaptations the strain of anomie

1) conformity - usually middle-class individuals who accept the culturally approved goals and strive to achieve them legitimately
2) innovation - individuals who accept the goal of money success but use illegitimate means to achieve it
3) ritualism - individuals who give up on the goal but have internalised the legitimate means and so follow the rules
4) retreatism - individuals who rejects both the goals and the legitimate means
5) rebellion - individuals reject societies goals and means, but try and replace them with new ones for a revolution and a better society

What patterns in official crime statistics does Merton show to prove his theory

• Most crime is property crime, Americans value material wealth so highly
• lower-class crime rates are higher, because they have less opportunities to obtain wealth legitimately

What are some criticism of Mertons strain theory

• Marxists argue that it ignores the power of the working class and how they create the laws in order to criminalise the poor and not the rich
• it assumes there is a value consensus, not everybody wants lot of money and wealth

What are the subculture strain theories

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

Does Cohen argree / disagree with Merton

He agrees that deviance is largely a lower-class phenomenon
However he criticises Mertons explanation of deviance for two reasons:

• Merton sees deviance as an individual response to strain, ignoring that fact that most crimes are committed in groups
• Merton focuses of utilitarian crime and ignores crimes like assault and vandalism, which is likely to have no economic motive

What does Cohen believe about working-class boys

He believes they face anomie in a middle-class dominated school system and lack legitimate means to succeed, this causes frustration from being at the bottom of the status hierarchy. This causes them to reject mainstream middle-class values and turn to boys in the same situation, creating delinquent subcultures.

What does Cloward and Ohlin believe

They believe that subcultures occur not only because of unequal access to legitimate opportunity structure but unequal access to illegitimate opportunity structures. They believe different neighbourhoods provide different opportunities for young people to learn criminal skills.

What are the three deviant subcultures that Cloward and Ohlin believe result from this

• Criminal subcultures provide youth with the means to develop a career in utilitarian crime (material gain e.g. theft)
• conflict subcultures arise in disorganised neighbourhoods where youths have no access to stable criminal role models or illicit opportunities, so they gain status through violence and gang conflict.
• retreatist subcultures is a group formed by "double failures" who drop out of both legitimate and illegitimate opportunity systems and retreat into drug use, alcohol, and escapism.

Evaluation of Cloward and Ohlin

Criticism - they dont think about how you can belong to more than one of these subcultures
Criticism - not everyone has the same mainstream goals