functionalist, strain and subcultural theories

What are the 2 functions in order to achieve social solidarity (within crime)

Socialisation- instils shared culture into its members, to act the right way that society requires

Social control - rewards (positive sanctions) for conformity and punishment (negative sanctions) for for deviance society requires

How is crime inevitable

Every society has some level of crime and deviance - crime free society is a contradiction in terms

Why is crime normal to Durkheim

Durkheim- ‘crime is normal, an integral part of all healthy societies’

what are the two factors why crime is inevitable and universal

1- not everyone is effectively socialised into shared norms and values - more prone to deviance

2- late modern/postmorden societies so diverse -isn’t one set of shared norms and values

There are many subcultures who develop their own norms and values

Mainstream culture may see these subcultures as deviant

What is anomie

A sense of alienation from society, characterised by feelings of not less less

positive functions of crime

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What is boundary maintenance

Helps to clarify the boundaries of acceptable and unacceptable behaviour

What does boundary maintenance

It creates social integration as it bonds society together why criminals, especially in the aftermath of crime , reaffirming societies shared rules and reinforces social solidarity

What is adaptation and change

All social change begins with some form of deviance - in order for changes to to occur, yesterdays deviance must become today’s normality

Since a certain amount of change is healthy for society so is deviance

What will happens without adaptation and chnage

if new ideas are suppressed, society will stagnate and be unable to make necessary adaptive changes

What does deviant behaviour do for society

Demonstrates a changing attitude of the population to the established way of doing things

As small groups deviate, others will accept these behaviours as the norm

As the behaviours become the norm for more people, they cease to be deviant, and society accepts the changes

What is an example of adaptation and change

The sufferagettes committed many acts of deviance until they received rights and quality

What is a safety valve

A way to let off steam, deviance is seen as a better alternative to total repression and control for wider society

How is prostition used as a safety valve to Kingley David

Kingley Davis- prostitution acts as a safety vales to suppress sexual frustrations

How is pornography a safety valve to Ned Polsky

Ned Polsky- pornography acts as a saftey vales as an alternative to adultery

Evaluations so far

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What is a strength to functionalism and deviance

Functionalism shows how deviance is integral to society and that has important latent (hidden) function

What is a limitation how Durkheim’s lack of explanation

Durkheim argues certain level of crime needed for society to function well but how much crime is the right amount

What is a limitation to why crime exists

Just because crime appears to function as a mechanism of creating social solidarity doesn’t mean it is the reason why crime exists

How is crime not functional for everyone

Crime isn’t functional for everyone - it might have a positive latent functions for society as a whole but what about the perpetrator who is punished or the victim who suffers

How does crime not lead to solidarity

Crime doesn’t always lead to solidarity - it might lead to fear and cause people to avoid social interaction as a result

Merton’s strain theory

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What does Merton argue

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

What can this result to

They may become frustrated and resort to criminal means of getting what they want, or lash out at others in anger, or find comfort for their failure in drug use

What are Merton’s 2 elements

Structural factors

Cultural factors

What are 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 an unequal structure of society create

unequal structures of society and the inability of some members to achieve the American Dream led to a strain to Anomie

What the ‘strain to anomie’ theory

•a goal creates a desire to succeed then that opportunity creates a pressure to adopt illegitimate means and norms are not enough to prevent deviance

How does the American dream contribute to this

The ideology of the American dream is that society is meritocratic- anyone who makes the effort to work hard can get ahead and everyone has the same opportunities to succeed

What are limitations to the American dream ideology

Disadvantaged groups are denied opportunities like discrimination , poverty, and inequate education

So society is not meritocratic and giving the same chnace to everyone

What is the positive way of reacting to the anerican dream

Some would continue to accept socially approved goals and strive to achieve those through either legitimate or illegitimate means

What is the negative reaction to the American dream

Others would reject socially approved goals and either deviate or conform to socially approved behaviours

What determines the reaction to anomie

An individuals position in the social structure affects the way they adapt or respond to the strain to anomie

What are Merton’s 5 modes of adaptation

Conformity

Innovation

Ritualism

Retreatists

Rebellion

What is conformity

Individuals accept both the culturally approved goals and strive to achieve them legitimately (middle-class individuals with more opportunities to succeed)

What is innovation

Accept the cultural goal to succeed but illegitimate means to achieve it such as theft or fraud or white collar crimes

Ritualism

This person has given up on the cultural goal of success but still plays the game and follows the rules for their own sake (lower middle class office workers in dead end jobs )

Retreatism

Rejected the cultural goal and the means to achieve it to dropout of society altogether (alcohol,drug abuse and petty crime)

Rebellion

Individual rejects society goals and replaces with new one in attempt to bring about revolutionary social change (political radicals and counter cultures)

Strain evaluation

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What is a strength on identifying behaviours

Shows how normal and deviant behaviour arise from same mainstream cultural goals

What does it explain

Explains the pattern shown in statistics that most crime is property crime - material wealth valued

What does it show for the lower class

Shows that lower class rates are higher because they have least opportunity to obtain wealth legitimately

What is a weakness on statistics

Statistics over-represent working class crime and Merton sees crime as mainly WC, overlooking white collar crimes (takes official statistics at face value)

How does it over-generalise

Too deterministic- working class experience most strain but not all deviate

What does it ignore

Ignores Marxist view- ruling class make and enforce laws to criminalise poor and advantage the rich

What does it assume

Assumes ‘value consensus’ but not everyone may share the goal of money success

What does it only account for

Only accounts for money crimes not violence or vandalism or state crimes like genocide or torture

What does it focus too heavily on

Focuses on individuals adapting but not tolerating of group deviance such as delinquent sub-cultures

Subcultural strain theories

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What do subcultural theories attempt to explain

Subcultural theories attempt to explain the group nature of crime and deviance, whereas strain theory focused on individuals

What do subcultural approaches link to

Functionalism

How are subcultures seen

Subcultures as providing an alternative opportunity structure for those denied the chance to achieve by legitimate means - mainly those in working class

How does Albert Cohen criticise Merton’s theory

Merton sees deviance as an individual response to strain- ignoring the fact that much deviance is committed in or by groups

Merton focuses on utilitarian crime committed for material gain and ignores such as assault and vandalism

What is Albert Cohen’s ‘Status frustration’

Examined young males from low-income backgrounds in USA in the 50s

What was the response to educational failure

As a response to educational failure and the inability to achieve status through legitimate means these males suffered from status frustrations

What did the boys do

As a response they turned to subcultural groups in order to obtain status from their peers

What is an alternative status hierarchy

forming your own norms and values

This subcultures values were spite, malice, hostility

What society condemns the subculture praised

What did Cohen argue for these boys

He argued that they face anomie in the middle class dominated school ststem

Suffering from cultural deprivation

Evaluation of Cohen’s study

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What is a strength to explanations

Offers an explanation of non-utilitarian deviance

What explains non-economic delinquency

Status frustration/ value inversion and alternative status hierarchy

What does Cohen assume (weakness)

Like Merton, Cohen assumes that working class boys start off sharing middle class success goals

What does Cohen ignore

Ignores the fact that the boys may never have shared these goals and bever saw themselves as failures

How do Cloward and Ohlin criticise Cohen

Criticise Cohen’s cultural explanation of crime - his failure to explain the variety of subcultureal forms that emerge out of the social structure

What do Colward and Ohlin argue on subcultures

Argue that the form working class delinquent subcultures take, depends on access to illegitimate opportunity structures e.g - access to existing adult criminal networks who will take on younger ‘apprentice’ criminals

What is the cultural transmission theory by Shaw and McKay

Some neighbourhoods develop a criminal tradition or culture that is transmitted from generation to generation, while other neighbourhoods remain relatively crime-free over the same period

What is the differential association theory by Edwin Sutherland

Sutherland was interested in the process by which people become deviant. He argued that deviance was behaviour Learned through social interaction with others who are deviant. This includes learning both criminal values and criminal skills

What is Park and Burgess’ social disorganisation theory

They argued that deviance is the product of social disorganisation. Changes such as rapid population turnover and migration create instability, disrupting family and community structures. These become unable to excercise social control over individuals , resulting in deviance

What are the 3 types of subcultures to Cloward and Ohlin

Criminal

Conflict

Retreatists

What is a criminal subculture

This occurs in areas where an established underworld already exists. Young males serve ‘apprenticeships’ in this world

What is a conflict subculture

No clear criminal underworld exists, no ‘apprenticeships’ to follow, Young males turn to gangs

Areas usually have a high turnover of residents, so there is never a chance of criminal subcultures developing

What is a retreatist subculture

Seen as ‘double failures’ - neither able to serve apprenticeships or join gangs

Resort to drug abuse aor petty crime

Evaluation of Cloward and Ohlin

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what do they ignore (limitation)

Agree with Merton and Cohen that most crime is working class ignoring crime of the wealthy

What does Their theory do (limitation)

Their theory over predicts the amount of working class crime ignoring the wider power structure - who makes and enforces the law

How does South criticise Cloward and Ohlin

South- they draw the boundaries too sharply between them- south claims that the drug trade is a mixture of both disorganised crime like conflict subculture and professional mafia style criminal subcultures

What is a strength of Cloward and Ohlin

Unlike Cohen they provide an explanation for different types of working - class deviance in terms of differnt subcultures

What are strain theories called and why

Reactive theories - because they explain subcultures as forming in reaction to the failure to achieve mainstream goals

Why are strain theories criticised

They have been criticised for assuming that everyone starts off sharing the same mainstream success goals

How does Miller criticise Cloward and Ohlin

Miller- claims WC have their own independent subculture in with differnt values (not all about achieving money success like MC) so members are not frustrated by failure or strain as they have differnt goals ‘focal concerns’ anyway

How does MATZA criticise subcultural theories

For over-estimating juvenile delinquency- they do this by assuming that membership of delinquent subcultures is permanent. He argues that individuals drifting and out of delinquency

What are recent strain theories more likely to be for

More goals rather than just financial ones for people to pursue

What do young people try to pursue

Young people particularly pursue such things as popularity with peers and autonomy from adults - sometimes leading them into delinquent activities

What is Messner and Rosenfeld’s Institutsleiter anomie theory

Focus on the effect of strain on institutions rather than individuals

They argue that capitalism promotes an ‘anything goes’ mentality in pursuit of the American Dream

In societies based on free-market capitalism and lacking adequate welfare provision high rates of crime crime are inevitable

What is an example on institutional anomie

Education prepares a children for competitive labour market at the expense of collaborative values

What is Hirschi’s control theory

Deviant behaviour occurs when an individuals attachment to society is weakened

While most sociologists who have thought about crime and deviance have focused on why people commit crimes, Hirschi focuses on why most people most of the time do not. - how social control is achieved

What are the 4 social bonds to Hirschi

Attachment

Commitment

Involvement

Belief

What is attachment

The extent to which we are concerned about the wishes and needs of others - family, family and those in our local community

What is commitment

How much have we invested in our lives- increasing attachment to society by improving these factors will lower crime levels

Involvement

If we’re busy professionally and personally in a range of legitimate activities (sports, religion and community groups) we’ll be too busy to break the law

Belief

People share moral beliefs, such as respect for rights of others and need for obedience to the law

What is a strength of Hirschi’s theory

Recognises the importance of socialisation and social control in maintaining a cohesive society

What doesn’t it not explain (limitation)

It doesn’t explain why some have weaker bonds than others or why those with weaker bonds do not turn to crime

What does it not recognise (limitation)

It doesn’t recognise that it is possible to be deviant and have thought social bonds - well integrated middle class drug users or white collar crimes with successful careers