C+D - Functionalism

Question 1

Functionalist view of crime

Answer 1

It is inevitable and positive

Question 2

What can too much crime cause

Answer 2

Anomie - social breakdown

Question 3

Why is crime inevitable for society (2)

Answer 3

• not everyone has been socialised into the same norms and values
• some groups have different subcultures which can be seen as deviant to mainstream culture

Question 4

Durkheim’s functions of crime (2)

Answer 4

• boundary maintenance
• adaptation and change

Question 5

Cohen’s function of crime

Answer 5

To show that an institution isn’t functioning correctly. For example if truancy is higher then it might mean the education system isn’t meeting the needs of pupils

Question 6

Boundary maintenance

Answer 6

To bring social solidarity

Question 7

Adaptation and change

Answer 7

To challenge the existing norms and values, for example the black power movement

Question 8

Criticisms to the functions (3)

Answer 8

• they don’t explain why crime exists in the first place
• ignore how crime impacts the individual
• crime doesn’t always bring social solidarity, eg if there’s a rapist then women will stay inside out of fear

Question 9

What is strain theory

Answer 9

when people commit crime as they can’t achieve goals through legitimate means
- he combines structural factors and cultural factors to explain it

Question 10

What is the American dream

Answer 10

A goal that can be achieved through hard work and self discipline. Is based off of meritocracy and equal opportunity

Question 11

What is the reality of the American dream

Answer 11

Many groups cannot achieve this due to inequality of opportunity. This can cause frustration so they use illegitimate means to achieve it

Question 12

who talks about strain theory and the American dream

Answer 12

Merton

Question 13

Merton - Adaptations to strain (5)

Answer 13

• conformity - accepting the goals and achieving them legitimately
• innovation - accepting the goals but using illegitimate means to achieve them
• ritualism - giving up on goals but following the rules
• retreatism - giving up on goals and legitimate means. Become dropouts, eg drug addicts and dropouts
• rebellion - rejecting the goals but aiming to replace them and bring revolutionary change

Question 14

Strengths of Merton (4)

Answer 14

• shows how different behaviours can arise from the same goal
• both conformists and innovators want money just in different means
• explains how most crime is utilitarian due to the value of material wealth
• explains that lower class crimes are higher due to having the least opportunity

Question 15

Criticisms of Merton (5)

Answer 15

• sees crime as mainly a wc phenomenon
• too deterministic as not all wc deviate even when they face the most strain
• Marxists say it ignores how the ruling class makes laws to criminalise the wc
• assumes there’s a value consensus that everyone wants money
• only accounts for utilitarian crime

Question 16

What is a subcultural strain theory

Answer 16

Sees deviance as the result of being under a delinquent subculture

Question 17

Who talks about status frustration

Answer 17

Cohen

Question 18

How does cohen criticise mertons strain theory (2)

Answer 18

• ignores crime committed by groups
• he is too focused on utilitarian crime

Question 19

What is status frustration and how does it cause crime

Answer 19

The feeling that you have failed in life, causes crime as they want to gain status through a different set of values

Question 20

Who commits the most crime due to status frustration according to cohen and why

Answer 20

Working class boys from a deprived area in lower streams, as they have less chance of a job so suffer from cultural deprivation so cannot achieve. This puts them at the bottom of the status hierarchy

Question 21

What do cloward and ohlin say about illegitimate opportunity subcultures

Answer 21

Deviance comes from how they respond to this

Question 22

According to cloward and ohlin what are the 3 different types of deviant subculture

Answer 22

• criminal subculture - committing utilitarian crime and getting an ‘apprenticeship’ in crime
• conflict subculture - using violence to release frustration over instability. In unorganised gangs
• retreatist subculture - criminals who don’t really benefit from committing crime

Question 23

Criticism on cloward and ohlin - MILLER

Answer 23

• they assume everybody has the same goals - MILLER says the wc have their own subcultures with its own goals
• crime is an extension of the wc values and has 6 focal concerns of wc males

Question 24

What are the six focal concerns

Answer 24

The guidelines of wc makes:
- trouble - life involves violence
- toughness - manliness
- smartness - look good and act sharp
- excitement - make it fun
- fate - life can’t be changed so make it fun
- autonomy - don’t let them push you around

Question 25

South and the drug trade

Answer 25

They say cloward and ohlin draw the boundaries to sharply. For example to drug trade is a mixture of disorganised crime AND professional crime

Question 26

Matza and the concept of drift

Answer 26

• for a period of time youths might feel they have no control over their lives due to being in ‘no man’s land’
• this is called drift, and during this our bonds to society are loosened so means youths are more likely to engage in delinquent behaviour to take back control
• once a decent opportunity presents itself we will drift out of crime

Question 27

Mesner and Rosenfeld - Institutional anomie theory

Answer 27

• uses American dream
• the ‘winner takes it all’ mentality pushes people into crime
• US - economic goals above all else
• encourages an ‘anomic cultural environment’
• higher crime rate in countries which are in like this. Countries that have adequate welfare have less crime (eg Iceland)