1.1 - Functionalist, Strain And Subculture Flashcards
What does Durkheim say about crime
Durkheim says that there’s two different sides of crime
1. A positive function of crime
2. A negative function of Crime
What’s a collective conscience?
Shared belief about what’s right and wrong consisted of shared beliefs. Individuals could not change within a society values at will, yet it carried out most individuals.
How does crime create social cohesion?
- Reaffirming the boundaries - eg public punishments taking place
- Changing values - eg suffragettes
- Social cohesion - eg one love Manchester
What does Davis say about crime
- crime acts as a safety valve
- allowing minor criminality or deviance to avoid bigger issues
What does Cohen say about positive functions of crime?
Suggested that crime could boost employment and the economy in the criminal justice system
Act as an early warning to society
Things can be corrected before too much damage is done
What would lea and young say about this (positive functions of crime)?
Stress that crime can cause read hardship and difficulty, especially for those who are already disadvantaged
What is anomie?
DURKHEIM - occurs during large periods of great social change or stress, and a collective conscience becomes too unclear to navigate.
In this situation it becomes uncertain how to deal with society and behaviour is questioned
What is egoism?
Collective conscience has now become too weak to retrain the selfish desires of individuals
What’s an evaluation of egoism and anomie?
Merton - suggested the idea was too vague and used this to develop subcultures theory
Evaluation of Durkheim
NEWBURN - thinks that he paid too little attention too little attention to how powerful could undue influence on how powerful the influence could be
What does Walton, young and Taylor say about Durkheim?
Crime itself if not functional for society
It’s the media souring crime and punishment which help yo unite society
He was too vague in identifying the types of crime
What was Morton’s strain theory?
Merton argued that all societies set their members certain goals and at the same time they provided socially approved ways of meeting these goals. Such as in the USA the idea of the American dream. Idea of going from a ‘log cabin’ to the ‘white house’ is they worked hard enough
What was Merton idea of ‘conformity’?
Individual continued to maintain the idea of socially approved goals and means
What does Merton identify as an ‘innovator’?
The person accepts the gaols of society but uses a different way to achieve these goals
What does Merton identify as an ‘ritualism ’?
immerses themesleves in the daily job and routine but has lost sight in material success
What does Merton identify as an ‘retreatism’?
The individuals fails to achieve and rejects both the goals and the means, may become dependent on drugs or drinking
What does Merton identify as an ‘rebellion’?
Different goals and means inserted, eg needing society it be radically changed
How would you evaluate Merton?
Vailer (2001) - theres lots of non material goal in out society
Walton, Young and Taylor - underestimates the middle class and overestimates WC eg White collar crime
How does Cloward and Ohlin develop this?
They discuss the idea of having an illegitimate oppertunity structure
What’s an illegitimate oppertunity structure?
They agreed wight Merton that a lack of opportunity has caused crime, but there’s apparel oppertunity structure to the legal opportunity structure, by this they meant that some subcultures in society there also illegal ones such as organised crime
What are the three illegal opportunity structures?
- Criminal oppertunity structure - young offenders can work their way up the ladder, thriving criminal subcultures
- Conflict - theres no local subculture to provide opportunity but territorial gangs which encourage violence, aim of earning prefect instead of a job
- Retreatsist - double failures
Evaluation of cloward and ohlin?
- there us suggestion of some organised crime in Britain
- Hobbs - Bad Buissenss, based on research with 110 drought dealers. The rear search showed that although some wanted to make money out of drug dealing, there is limited large scale organised crime in the Uk
- this is a very neat idea
What does Albert Cohen say about the causes?
- Cohen was interested in the fact that a lot of Young offending behaviour is not economically motivated
- eg - vandalism and violence
What does Cohen say about why ‘lower class boys’ commit crime?
- lower class boys did originally strive to achieve middle - class values and aspirations, but they lacked the means to obtain success
- upbringing did not equip them to achieve at school
- they did not achieve status through an exam
- this would lead to a ‘status frustration’
- they would reject these usual ideas of status and would feel humiliated
- they then would ‘invert’ traditional middle class values
- they would create a subculture of anti school values - and then a group or gang would appear more attractive to them
