CRIME AND DEVIANCE - FUNCTIONALISM

What is crime?

usually assosciated with behaviour that breaks the formal, written laws of a given society.The punishment of crime is more likely to be more serious than punishment of deviance, but different laws and crimes are treated in different ways

What is deviance?

to move away from a set of standards in society, deviance is more general than crime and often not controlled legally. Not always a negative action and it is possible to deviate in a positive fashion

What is Wickmann’s definition of deviance?

deviance is a behaviour that violates the standards of conduct or expectations of a group or society

What percentage of people in the prison system are men?

95%

What is societal deviance?

n idea that society deems as unacceptable constantly

What is situational deviance?

concepts that would be acceptable in one situation but not another

What view do functionalists take of crime?

normative view as it provides a consensus in society as to what is acceptable

What is Durkheim’s view of crime?

crime is functional, it brings communities together, reinforces boundary maintenance and illustrates weaknesses that occur within the current legal system

Who adapted Durkhiem’s approach, what did they create?

Merton, Strain theory

Why is crime positive to the economy?

provides lots of jobs

What does boundary maintenance provide?

helps with defining right and wrong

How does crime provide a temperature check?

shows that if there is too much, there is oten a reason for this and shows that something needs to be addressed in society

Why is it essentiall that crime is controlled?

to ensure that anomie (sate of normlesness) doesn’t occur

What does Kingsley DAvies say about the safety value in society?

suggesting crime has a positive function as it allows mens sexual tension to be released, eg through prostitution

Why are core values important for studying crime and deviance?

can explain why people act in a deviant manner, focussing on how dysfuntional behaviour within social institutions. make some people into criminals/deviants - people who conform have been ‘properly socialised’

How does public opinion impact crime?

acts like a gauge and can cause change in the law (eg sarahs law allows parents access to the sex offenders list) strengthens social bonds between people and reaffirms values when drawn together by a horrific crime

When does crime stop being functional?

when there is too much

What Durkheim’s functionalist views on crime be boiled down to?

it’s inevitable, adapts to change and the function of punishment is to heal wounds

What are the evaluation points for Durkheim?

doesn’t quatify how much crime is ‘enough’, latent functions of crime. macro approach (ignores impact on indicvidual), doesn’t always promote solidarity and cause isolation, assumed people follow the masses, ignores the concept of power and who makes the laws

What is Mertons’s strain theory?

everyone strives to achieve the american dream but not everyone can achieve these lawfully, there are 5 different ways that people can react to this strain to achieve the american dream depending on whether the individual accepts, rejects or replaces cultural goals and the legitimate means of achieveing them

When does Merton put forward his strain theory?

1949

What two elements does Strain theory combine?

1) structural factors - society’s unequal opportunity structure

2) cultural factors - the strong emphaisis on success goals and the weaker emphasis on using legitimate means to achieve them

What are Mertons 5 repsonses to strain?

conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebelion

What does Merton mean by conformity?

members of society who conform both to success goals and the normative means of reaching them. they strive for success throiugh the accepted channels

What does Merton mean by innovation?

ths repsonse rejects normative measn of achieveing success and turns to deviant means, ie crime

What does Merton mean by ritualism?

those who select this alternative are deviant becuase they have largely abandoned the commonly held success goals and feel success in this

What does Merton mean by retreatism?

changes depending on social constructs, but strong interbnlaised both the cultural goals and the institutionalised means, yet are unable to achieve success. Psychotics, autists, pariahs, outcasts, vagrabts, vagabonds, tramps, chronic drunkards and drug addicts

What does Merton mean by rebellion?

rejection of both the success goals and the institutionalised meand and it replaces them with different goals and means

What are the evaluation points of Merton’s strain theory?

takes crime statistics at face value, assumes goal and value consensus, dterministic, only talks about utilitarian crimes, ignores group delinquincy

What is Cohen’s status frustration?

focus on deviance and crime in young poeope, anomie due to school system, crime caused by inability to succeed in a middle class world, reject set values and form delinquint subcultures

What are Cloward and Ohlin’s sub cultures?

different subcultures react to lack of legitimate means of achieving and so act differently, 3 types of subcultrue, criminal, conflict and retreatist

What do Cloward and Ohlin mean by delinquincy and opportunity?

accept Merton’s views but argued that he had failed to explain the different forms that deviance takes, argue that Merton only dealt with half of the picture. Explained deviance in terms of the legitimate opportunity structure and illegitimate opportunity structure

According to Cloward and Ohlin why are there higher rates of working class delinquency?

greater pressure on members of the working class to deviate as they have less opportunities to succeed by legitimate means

What are Cohen’s two major criticisms of Merton?

delinquency was a collective rather than an individual response, whereas meron saw individuals responding to their position in the class structure, Cohen argues that this is a collective response.

Cohen argues that Merton fails to take into account for non utilitarian crime

How does Cohen argue that delinquent subcultures pop up?

cultural deprivation accounts for the lack of educational success for the members of the working class, stuck at the bottom of the stratification system with queues to success blocked many working class boys suffer from status frustration and resolve their frustration by turning to criminal paths to success but therefore reject the mainstream culture

What are the three subcultures that Cloward and Ohlin identify?

criminal, conflict and retreatist

What are the features of Cloward and Ohlin’s criminal subculture?

tend to emerge in areas where there is an established pattern of organised adult crime, a ‘learning environment’ is provided for the young where they learn criminal skills and deviant values,presented with criminal role models, mainly concerned with utilitarian crime

What are the features of Cloward and Ohlin’s conflict subculture?

tend to develop in areas where adolescents have few opportunities in the legitimate opportunity structure, little organised adult crime to provide ‘apprenticeship’ for the young criminals and opportunities for them to climb the illegitimate ladder to success

What are the features of Cloward and Ohlin’s retreatist subculture?

mainly around illegal drug use as they have failed to succeed in both legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structures, failed in conflict and criminal subcultures

Evaluation of Cloward and Ohlin’s subcultures?

only looks at working class crime and criminals, not all subcultures are seperate and distinct. Matza argues that subculture membership is temporary, Miller argues that working class people have a seperate subculture with its own values indepdent of the mainstream

General functionalist evaluation points?

doesn’t take into account who makes laws, little explanation of white collar crime, plays down dysfunctional elements of society, crime is not an obvious precursor to change, issues with methodology, rose tinted glasses, high rates of recidivism, policing incentives, patriarchy,