functionalist, strain and subcultural theories ✅

Culture

A shared set of norms, value and belief

Two mechanisms that society uses to achieve solidarity

• SOCIALISATION

This instils the shared culture into its members and helps to ensure that individuals internalise the same norms and values and that they feel it right to act in the same way that society requires

• SOCIAL CONTROL

Includes rewards (or positive sanctions) for conformity, and punishments (negative sanctions) for deviance. These help to ensure that individuals behave in the same way society expects

Crime and deviance meaning

Crime is an act that breaks a formal law and is punishable by the legal system, while deviance is behavior that violates social norms and expectations, which may or may not be against the law

Functionalist view of crime and deviance

Functionalism views crime and deviance as inevitable and ultimately functional for society, performing positive roles and it is a normal necessary thing for a cohesive society

2 reasons why crime is found in all societies

1. Not everyone is equally effectively socialised into the shared norms and values, so some individuals will be prone to deviate

2. There is diversity of lifestyles and values in complex, modern societies, different groups develop their own subcultures with distinctive norms and values

According to Durkheim, why are modern societies likely to experience crime

• Modern society tend towards anomie (normlessness) because modern societies have a complex, specialised division of labour, which leads to individuals becoming increasingly different from one another.

• This weakens the shared culture into and results in higher levels of deviance

Durkheim’s positive functions of crime

1. Boundary maintenance

• They remind society where the moral lines are by provoking strong condemnation and punishment

2. Adaption and change

• Shocking crimes can trigger reforms in law, institutions, and social practices (e.g, safeguarding policies after child abuse scandals)

3. Social cohesion

• Communities often unite in grief, remembrance or protest, strengthening solidarity and reaffirming social values

Davis and Polsky’s function of crime

Safety Valve:

• Prostitution acts as a safety valve for the release of men’s sexual frustrations without threatening the monogamous nuclear family

• Pornography safely “channels” a variety of sexual desires away from alternatives such as adultery, which would pose a much greater threat to the family

A.K Cohens function of crime

Warning device:

• Deviance is a warning that an institution is not functioning properly and policy makers need to make appropriate changes to it

Erikson’s function of crime

• If deviance performs positive social functions, then perhaps it means society is actually organised so as to promote deviance

Why is functionalism useful for understanding crime and deviance

It provides an important and interesting analysis that directs attention to the way in which deviance can have hidden or latent functions for society

Criticisms of the functionalist theory of crime and deviance

1. Society does not create crime in advance with the intention of strengthening solidarity

2. Ignores how crimes might affect different groups or individuals - functional for whom?

3. Crime doesn’t always promote solidarity, it may have the opposite affect leading to people becoming more isolated

Merton’s strain theory

People engage in deviant behaviour when they are unable to achieve socially approved goals by legitimate means

Strain theory

Crime and deviance are more likely to occur when there is a disconnect between culturally accepted goals and the legitimate means available to achieve them

2 factors that cause strain for individuals

1. The goals that a culture encourages individual to achieve

2. What the institutional structure of society allows them to achieve legitimately

American dream

Americans are meant to pursue their goals by legitimate means; self discipline, study, educational qualifications and hard work in a career

Strain to anomie

• Poverty, inadequate schools and discrimination in the job market may block opportunities for many ethnic minorities and lower classes

• Strain between goal of money and lack of opportunities produces frustration, and this in turn creates a pressure to resort to illegitimate means such as C+D

Why is there pressure to deviate in American culture

American culture puts more emphasis on achieving success at any price than upon doing so by legitimate means. Winning the game becomes more important than playing by the rules

Merton’s 5 adaptations to strain

1. Conformity

2. Innovation

3. Ritualism

4. Retreatism

5. Rebellion

Two patterns of crime Merton explains

1. Most crime is property crime, because American society values material wealth so highly

2. W/C crime rates are higher because they have the least opportunities to obtain wealth legitimately

Criticism of Merton

1. Deterministic

2. Ignores white collar crime

3. Assumes a value consensus

4. Only accounts for utilitarian crime

5. Lacks explanation of group deviance

Subculture

A group of people who have different values to those of mainstream society

What do subcultures offer their members

Provides them an alternative opportunity structure for those who are denied the chance to achieve by legitimate means, mainly those in the W/C

In what sense are subcultures functional

Subcultures are a solution to a problem that some people are denied the opportunity to achieve. Therefore subcultures are functional for their members, even if not for wider society

According to Cohen, why is crime a lower class phenomenon (Status frustration)

It results from the inability of those in the lower classes to achieve mainstream success goals by legitimate means such as educational achievement

Two criticisms Cohen makes of Merton

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

2. Merton focuses on utilitarian crime committed for material gain such as theft or fraud. He largely ignores crimes such as assault and vandalism which have no economic motive

Why do W/C boys face anomie

Cohen:

• In a M/C dominated school system, they suffer from cultural deprivation and lack the skills to achieve

• Their inability to succeed in this M/C world leaves them at the bottom of the official status hierarchy

Values of subculture that Cohen describes

Spite, malice, hostility and contempt for those outside it, turns the values of the mainstream society upside down

How does the subculture offer an alternative status hierarchy

Having failed in the legitimate opportunity structure, the boys create their own illegitimate opportunity structure in which they can win status from their peers through their delinquent actions

Criticism of Cohens view

• Assumes that W/C boys start of sharing M/C goals only to reject these when they fail

• Ignores the possibility that they didn’t share these goals in the first place and so never saw themselves as failures

Cloward and Ohlin

Attempt to explain why different subcultural responses occur. In their view, the key reason is not only unequal access to the legitimate opportunity structure but unequal access to legitimate opportunity structures

3 types of deviant subcultures

Cloward and Ohlin:

1. Criminal subcultures

2. Conflict subcultures

3. Retreatist subcultures

Cultural transmission theory (Chicago school work)

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

Differential association theory (Chicago school work)

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 skills

Social disorganisation theory (Chicago school work)

Deviance is the produce of social disorganisation. Changes such as rapid population turnover and migration create instability, disrupting family and community structures. These become unable to exercise social control over individuals resulting in deviance

Evaluation of Cloward and Ohlin

1. Doesn’t cover crime of the wealthy

2. Ignores wider power structure

What problem does South identify with Cloward and Ohlin’s type of subcultures

Drug trade is a mixture of both disorganised crime and professional mafia style criminal subcultures. They do not mention that people can belong to more than one subculture

Why are strain theories criticised for being reactive

They explain subcultures as forming in reaction to the failure to achieve mainstream goals. They assume that everyone starts off sharing the same mainstream success goal

Miller - Independent subcultures

W/C has its own independent subculture separate from mainstream culture, with its own values. This subculture does not value success in the first place, so its members are not frustrated by failure

Matza - Subculture members behaviour

Most delinquents are not strongly committed to their subculture, as strain theories suggest, but merely drift in and out of delinquency

What other goals might young people pursue

Recent strain theorists:

• Young people may pursue other goals than money. These include popularity, autonomy from adults, or the desire of some young males to be treated like ‘real men’

Why might M/C youths be delinquent

Recent strain theorists:

• M/C juveniles may also have problems achieving goals resulting in delinquency

Messner and Rosenfeld’s institutional anomie theory

Recent strain theorists:

• The ‘American Dream’ obsession with money success and its ‘winner takes all’ mentality exert pressures towards crime by encouraging an anomic cultural environment in which people are encouraged to adopt an ‘anything goes’ mentality in pursuit of wealth

Downes and Hansen

• In a survey of crime rates and welfare spending in 18 countries, they found societies that spend more on welfare had lower rates of imprisonment

• This backs up Messner and Rosenfeld’s claim that societies that protect the poor from the worst excesses of the free market have less crime

According to Savelsberg, why was there a rise in crime in post-communist societies in Eastern Europe

He attributes the rise in crime to communisms collective values being replaced by new western capitalist goals of individual ‘money success’