AQA Sociology Paper 3: Functionalist Explanations of Crime and Deviance

Topic Overview: AQA Paper 3 Crime and Deviance

• Subject Context: Sociology, AQA Paper 3: Crime and Deviance with Theory and Methods.

• Assessment Parameters:

  • Duration: $2h$

  • Total Marks: $80$ marks.

• Core Engagement: Students must engage in theoretical debates and active involvement with the research process, incorporating small-scale research experiences.

• Specification Scope:

  • Crime, deviance, social order, and social control.

  • Social distribution of crime based on ethnicity, gender, and social class (including recent trends).

  • Globalisation, media influences, green crime, and human rights/state crimes.

  • Criminal justice system roles: crime control, surveillance, prevention, punishment, and victimology.

Foundational Definitions and Social Construction

• Core Definitions:

  • Crime: The act of breaking the law.

  • Deviance: Acts that break the established social norms and values of a specific society.

• The Social Construction of Crime and Deviance:

  • The notion that crime and deviance are created by society rather than being inherently wrong.

  • Theories on Construction:

    • Marxists: Argue that the wealthy and powerful classes construct definitions of crime and deviance to serve their interests.

    • Interactionists: Argue that socialisation processes and power relations shape what is understood as criminal.

  • Variations in Construction:

    1. Historical Variation: What is considered deviant or criminal changes over time.

    2. Cross-cultural Variation: Definitions of crime and deviance differ across different countries and cultures.

    3. Situational Variation: Definitions change based on the specific location or context of the act.

Functionalism: Theoretical Framework and the Organic Analogy

• Theory Type: Structuralist, consensus theory.

• The Organic Analogy:

  • Functionalists compare society to the human body.

  • All parts (institutions) must function together effectively to maintain social consensus.

  • If one part stops functioning correctly (sickness), the entire system is affected.

• Social Solidarity and Anomie:

  • Agents of socialisation (family, education, media) reinforce social solidarity.

  • Social solidarity acts as a preventative measure against anomie (a state of normlessness or chaos).

  • Small amounts of crime are inevitable because the "deviance threshold" fluctuates.

  • Too much crime is viewed as a "cancer" that leads to societal collapse/anomie.

Durkheim’s Perspective on Law and Crime

• The Development of Law: Legal systems develop in complex societies to regulate moral understandings and relationships.

• Codification: Laws "codify" moral behaviors, making them explicit.

• The Four Main Functions of Law and Crime:

  1. Establish Boundaries: Defines the guidelines for acceptable and unacceptable behavior.

  2. Boundary Marking: Public and visible reinforcement of norms (often mediated through the press and the courts).

  3. Adaptation and Change: Crime allows for the testing of current laws. Acts of deviance may eventually signal that a law is outdated (social statics) and needs to change based on evolving public perception.

  4. Integration/Social Solidarity: Criminal acts create a "collective outrage," uniting the community and reinforcing social bonds against the transgressor.

• The "Just Right" Principle:

  • Too much crime = Social disintegration.

  • Too little crime = Stagnation/Repression.

  • Optimum level = Necessary for social evolution and stability.

Merton’s Strain Theory ($1957$)

• Development of Durkheim’s Concepts: Merton shifted the concept of anomie from a societal level (normlessness) to an individual level.

• Core Premise: Strain occurs when individuals are unable to achieve socially accepted goals (the "American Dream") via legitimate, institutionalized means because of structural inequalities (blocked aspirations).

• Modes of Adaptation:

• Key Concept: Innovation is the primary adaptation leading to crime, as individuals retain the goal of success but lack the means to reach it.

Subcultural Explanations and Key Theorists

• Albert K. Cohen (A.K. Cohen): Developed the concept of Status Frustration, where individuals (often working-class youth) who fail to achieve status in mainstream society create their own subcultures with inverted values.

• Cloward and Ohlin: Identified specific types of Criminal Subcultures based on the availability of illegitimate opportunity structures (Criminal, Conflict, and Retreatist subcultures).

• Other Key Perspectives in the Specification:

  • Marxists/Neo-Marxists: Focus on "Criminogenic Capitalism," law-making by the elite, and critical criminology (Theorists: Marx, Chambliss, Snider, Taylor, Walton & Young).

  • Labelling Theory: Focus on the social construction of deviance and deviance amplification (Theorists: Becker, Cicourel, Lemert, S. Cohen, Braithwaite).

  • Right Realism: Focus on causes and practical solutions to crime (Theorists: Wilson, Murray, Wilson & Kelling, Felson).

  • Left Realism: Focus on relative deprivation, subcultures, and marginalisation (Theorists: Young, Lea & Young).

Case Study: Harold Shipman ("Dr. Death")

• Context: Dr. Harold Shipman, a GP from Hyde, Greater Manchester, was convicted on Tuesday, February $1$, $2000$.

• Specifics:

  • Guilty of killing $15$ women patients.

  • Faced $23$ new murder charges at the time of the report.

  • Police files suggested at least $100$ more victims; the coroner estimated it could be up to $1000$ over $30$ years.

• Functionalist Application: Under Durkheim’s theory, the trial and reporting of such an extreme case provide the function of Social Solidarity. The collective outrage of the public against the "Face of Evil" reinforces the shared moral values and social bonds of the community.

Exam Application and Methodology

• Writing Structure (PEEEL + C):

  • Point ($A01$)

  • Explain ($A01$-$2$)

  • Evidence ($A01$-$2$)

  • Evaluation ($A03$)

  • Link ($A02$)

  • Concepts ($A01$)

• Example Questions (Paper 3):

  • 4 marks: Outline two ways in which crime is functional for society.

  • 6 marks: Outline three reasons why people commit crime.

  • 10 marks: Applying material from Item A, analyse two functionalist explanations of crime.

  • 30 marks: Applying material from Item B and your knowledge, evaluate the usefulness of Functionalist explanations of crime and deviance.

  • Theory/Methods Link (20 marks): Evaluate the usefulness of Functionalist approaches in understanding society.

Questions & Discussion

• Long-term Review: How is a structural approach different from an action approach?

• Medium-term Review: How is positivism different from interpretivism?

• Short-term Review: Identify $3$ policies that have shaped education.

• Active Learning Question: Can you think of an act that is NOT subject to variation (Historical, Cross-cultural, or Situational)?

• Vocabulary/Concepts for Definition:

  • Social solidarity, collective conscious, anomie.

  • Structural, consensus, subculture.

  • Status frustration, techniques of neutralisation.

  • Drift theory, neo-liberal.

• Perspectives for Evaluation:

  • How would Marxists, New Right, Feminists, Interactionists, or Postmodernists critique the Functionalist view?