Functionalism, Strain and Subcultural theories of Crime

Durkheim: Pre-Modern Society

People share similar beliefs, values, and lifestyles

• strong collective conscience

• mechanical solidary - social unity comes from similarity and shared traditions

Durkheim: Modern Society

Different jobs, beliefs, and lifestyles

• less of a collective conscience

• organic solidarity - social unity comes from people’s interdependence in a complex society

Which society does Durkheim believe that crime tends to increase in?

Modern

Why does Durkheim believe deviance is both inevitable and universal?

• Weaker Socialisation: more variety of people, don’t all agree on the same norms - break some rules

• Rise of Subcultures: people have different experiences and values, some groups from subcultures with their own norms that may conflict with mainstream values

• Anomie: a state where social norms become unclear or break down during rapid social change - people feel disconnected

What positive functions does Deviance perform for society? - Durkheim

• Boundary Maintenance

• Adaption and Change

• Safety Value

• Warning Devise

Durkheim: Boundary Maintance

Policing the formal and informal sanctions used to either reward those who conform or punish those who deviate

• shared disapproval of deviant behavior strengthens our social solidarity

Durkheim: Adaption and Change

If people never deviated from a society’s norms and values, then society would never change

• organic process of social change is started by society responding positively to deviant behavior - becomes normal

Durkheim: Safety Value - Kingsley Davis

Deviance acted as a safety valve for society

• prostitution: positive function of releasing men’s sexual tension without damaging the nuclear family

Durkheim: Warning Device

An increase in crime/deviance makes those responsible aware that institutions are not functioning effectively requiring them to take action

Durkheim: Egoism

Occurs when a collective conscience is too weak to restrain selfish desires of people

• lack of socialisation to maintain collective values - leads to individuals ignoring the needs of society as a whole for their own selfish gain

Durkheim: Anomie

State of normlessness or a breakdown in social norms and values - contribution to crime and deviance

• during periods of rapid social change - disjunction between the cultural goals of society and the means available to achieve them

People feel disconnected or adrift from society - lack of attachments, norms and values

Durkheim’s Theory - Strengths

• Explains why crime is universal

• Highlights positive functions of crime

• Introduced the idea of anomie

Durkheim’s Theory - Weaknesses

• Too positive about crime

• Ignored power and inequality (conflict theory critique)

• Vague on how much crime is functional

What does Hirschi’s theory focus on?

Why do most people NOT commit crime?

• social control is achieved through 4 primary types of social bonds

Hirschi: Attachment

Strong attachment to conventional social institutions are less likely to engage in deviant behavior

• Strong emotional bonds = create a stake in conformity - deviance may jeopardise these relationships

Hirschi: Commitment

Individuals who have a strong commitment to conventional goals and activities are less likely to engage in deviance

• educational or career aspirations

Hirschi: Involvement

Individuals who are heavily involved in conventional activities and social interactions have less time and opportunity to engage in deviant behavior

Hirschi: Belief

Individuals who strongly adhere to conventional norms and values are less likely to engage in deviant behavior

• individuals internalise these values and feel obligated to abide by them

Hirschi’s bonds of attachment - Weaknesses

• Does not address the issue of why people with secure bonds of attachment commit crimes

• Marxists & Feminists - not a value consensus that benefits all of society: capitalism produces detached, marginalised individuals deliberately to increase reserve army of labour, benefits the bourgeoisie

What ideas and theories did Merton develop

• Anomie

• Strain Theory

Why did Merton disagree with other Functionalist Sociologists?

Disagreed that all institutions in society benefitted all of society’s members

• aspects of society would become dysfunctional and would need to change for society

Merton - Strain Theory

There was a strain between socially accepted goals in society and the socially approved means of obtaining these goals

• when people can’t achieve these goals through socially acceptable means they turn towards crime and deviance

What is the American Dream?

Widely-held belief that in the United States, individuals have the opportunity to achieve material success, prosperity, and upward social mobility through hard work, determination, and merit

• shared goals

Why does the American Dream create a Strain in society?

There was a strain between socially encouraged goals of society and the socially acceptable means of achieving them

What are the five adaptations in response to the strain theory? - Merton (RRRIC)

• Rebellion

• Retreatism

• Ritualist

• Innovation

• Conformity

Adaptions to Strain: Rebellion - Merton

Both socially sanctioned goals and means are rejected, and different ones substituted

• society no longer works well and needs to be radically changes

Adaptions to Strain: Retreatism - Merton

Individual fails to achieve success and rejects both goals and means

• ‘drops out’ of society - may become dependent upon drugs and alcohol

Adaptions to Strain: Ritualist - Merton

A person who immerses themself in the daily routine and regulations of their job but has lost sight of the goal of material success

• given up on trying to get promoted or becoming rich and powerful

Adaptions to Strain: Innovation - Merton

Person accepts the goals of society but uses different ways to achieve these goals

• common in lower social classes

• opportunities generally not equal = better-off had advantages over those on lower incomes

Adaptions to Strain: Conformity - Merton

Adhere to both goals and means, despite the limited likelihood of success

Strain Theory - Weaknesses (Valier)

Argues that there is a variety of goals and people strive to attain at any one time

• people might prioritise altruism or a happy family life over financial success of power

Strain Theory - Weaknesses (Taylor, Walton and Young)

Underestimates the amount of middle and upper-class crime while overestimating working class crime

• white collar crime

Strain Theory - Weaknesses (Marxists)

Does not consider the source of social goals, nor in whose interests

• bourgeois ideology: interests of capitalism

• everyone wants money to purchase consumers

Strain Theory - Weaknesses

• failed to explain crimes that do not produce material reward (non-utilitarian crimes)

• ignored group crimes

How does Cohen’s Subcultural Theory develop Merton’s Strain Theory?

Addresses questions about why groups commit crimes and non-utilitarian crimes

What is the key to subcultural theories?

Deviants conform to norms and values, they just happen to be different norms and values from the rest of society

What does Cohen argue about working-class boys?

Failed at school resulting in low status and status frustration

• resulted in the formation of subcultures

What did Cohen argue that working-class boys subcultures did?

Inverted the values of school

• things deemed deviant in mainstream society was praiseworthy and a way of gaining status in the subculture

What did WC boys in subcultures do to receive status from their peers? (Cohen)

Took part in truanting, answering teachers back, and destroying property through vandalism

Why did WC boys partake in crimes such as vandalism or fighting according to Cohen?

Explained by the subcultures

• inverted the values of mainstream society

• turned socially deviant acts into ones that are praiseworthy

• way of achieving status within the group

Cohen’s Subcultural Theory - Weaknesses

• Members of delinquent subcultures are unlikely to have a consciously thought that mainstream society would consider their acts unacceptable

• Doesn’t explain why delinquent subcultures were mostly working-class

Cohen’s Subcultural Theory - Weaknesses (Post-modernists)

Lyng & Katz

• individual is influenced by boredom or is seeking a “buzz”

Cohen’s Subcultural Theory - Weaknesses (Feminists)

Theory does not consider gender

• if frustration at low status causes deviants wouldn’t WC girls create subcultures too?

Cohen’s Subcultural Theory - Strengths

• considers reasons for non-utilitarian crimes

• considers why people commit group crimes

Which theory impacted Cloward and Ohlin’s ideas?

Strain Theory - Merton

What did Cloward and Ohlin attempt to explain through their theory?

Why some subcultures focused on certain types of deviance?

• Why some subcultures centered on vandalism and violence

• Why other subcultures centered on utilitarian crime

How does Cloward and Ohlin explain the differences within subcultures?

Access to Illegitimate Opportunity Subcultures

• just as the opportunity to be successful through legal/legitimate means varies

• opportunities to be successfully illegitimately

Illegitimate Opportunity Structure: Criminal - Cloward and Ohlin

Thriving local criminal subculture with successful role models

• ‘work their way up the ladder’

• attracted to system because people with the same background as them have become successful in a criminal career

• often recruited when young - if they prove to be dedicated - given opportunities to take their criminal careers further

Illegitimate Opportunity Structure: Conflict - Cloward and Ohlin

No local criminal subculture to provide a career opportunity - but territorial gangs exist

• recruit or press-gang young people in the neighborhood into service

• often engage in violence against one another - way of achieving ‘respect’ for young people

Substitute for qualifications or a well-paid job, either in mainstream employment or criminal organisations

Illegitimate Opportunity Structure: Retreatist - Cloward and Ohlin

Tends to occur where individuals have no opportunity or ability to engage in either of the other two subcultural or to achieve success in legitimate ways

• ‘double failures’ - result is a retreat into alcohol or drugs

• dropped out of society

Cloward and Ohlin: Illegitimate Opportunity Structure - Weaknesses (Conflict criticism)

• Only discusses working-class crime (Marxist)

• Predominantly about males (Feminist)

Cloward and Ohlin: Illegitimate Opportunity Structure - Weaknesses

Most criminal gangs would have elements of two or more of these subcultures

Which theory did Miller reject?

Merton and Cohen

What did Miller suggest about the cause of working class criminality?

WC boys were socialised into a number of values that together meant that they were more likely to engage in delinquent or deviant behaviour

What are Miller’s 6 Focal Concerns

FASTTE

• Fate

• Autonomy

• Smartness

• Trouble

• Toughness

• Excitement

Miller: Focal Concerns - Fate

They believe that their future is already decided

• won’t do anything to influence it

• self-fulfilling prophecy

Miller: Focal Concerns - Autonomy

They wish to be independent and not reliant on others

Miller: Focal Concerns - Smartness

They use wit or smart remarks

Miller: Focal Concerns - Trouble

Typically get into trouble

• Linked to excitement and toughness

Miller: Focal Concerns - Toughness

Might want to prove that they are tough or “well hard”

Miller: Focal Concerns - Excitement

They seek out excitement (particularly when not at home)

What is Miller suggesting about WC boys through his Focal Concerns?

None of these vales mean that WC boys become criminals

• make crime more likely

Miller: Focal Concerns - Weaknesses (Feminist)

Doesn’t consider gender

• focal concerns might just be masculine values rather then lower-class ones!

• “concerns” are also those of working-class girls

• may be features of “lower-class” values r indeed of youth in general

What does Matza argue about the values of people who commit deviant acts?

Deviant Acts don’t fully accept a different value system

• often drift between conforming to society’s rules and breaking them

What does Matza believe about people commit deviant acts?

They feel guilt or shame about their behaviour but use techniques of neutralisation to justify it so they can avoid feeling responsible

Conventional Values

Mainstream norms and values

• values we display as a result of the roles we perform

Subterranean Values

Private Values

• usually controlled but we all hold them and do them

Exist at the margins of society - present in all societies

What are the 3 examples of Subterranean Values?

• Greed

• Sexuality

• Aggression

Often associated with spontaneity, rebellion, and self-expression

Matza:Techniques of Neutralisation - Denial of Responsibility

Believes that it wasn’t their fault

Matza:Techniques of Neutralisation - Denial of Victim

Victim deserved it

Matza:Techniques of Neutralisation - Denial of Injury

Did not mean to harm someone

Matza:Techniques of Neutralisation - Condemnation of Condemners

They aren’t the only ones that do that

Matza:Techniques of Neutralisation - Appeal to Higher Loyalities

Loyalty to others - moral standards

What does Matza say about ‘youth’?

‘no mans land’

• youth is a period of drift

• still working out who they are have less control over their lives than adults do

What happens once young people gain a sense of stability according to Matza?

They drift out of crime and conform to society’s norms and rules