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Y13 Sociology > Crime and Deviance - Functionalist, Strain and Subcultural Theories > Flashcards

Crime and Deviance - Functionalist, Strain and Subcultural Theories Flashcards

1
Q

Crime definition?

A

All activities that break the law of the land and are subject to official punishment.

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2
Q

Deviance definition?

A

An action/behaviour which violates the norms and expectations of society.

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3
Q

Deviance as a social construct?

A

Based on time, place, social group and subculture.

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4
Q

Examples of deviance being based on time?

A
  1. Attitudes towards abortion and homosexuality, a crime in Victorian England.
  2. Notion of the househusband, used to be seen as violating the norms.
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5
Q

Examples of deviance being based on social group?

A
  1. Age - going clubbing is acceptable for young people but not older people.
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6
Q

Examples of deviance being based on culture?

A
  1. Polygamy not accepted in many Western countries.
  2. Smoking cannabis is deemed deviant in modern Britain, but not Middle Eastern countries.
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7
Q

Examples of deviance being based on situation?

A
  1. Nudity is normal in shower/nudist beach, but other places would be indecent exposure.
  2. Killing may be seen as heroic on battlefield, bus as murder on the street.
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8
Q

Functionalist overall view of crime?

A

‘crime is inevitable and universal’

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9
Q

What is social solidarity?

A

The ties that bind the members of a society.

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10
Q

Why Durkheim believes crime is inevitable?

A
  • Too much destabilises society and threatens social order.
  • crime is caused due to inadequate socialising (e.g., lone parents and diverse family types) into norms and values.
  • due to post modern society being so diverse, the tendency for anomie as norms which govern behaviour become weaker.
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11
Q

Why Durkheim believes crime is a functional and integral part of society?

A
  • reinforces the consensus of values, norms and behaviour of non-deviant majority.
  • Too much crime = social breakdown, lack of integration, and broken social bonds.
  • Too little = repressed freedom.
  • All societies need limited amount of crime to remain healthy.
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12
Q

What are Durkheim’s 5 positive functions of crime?

A
  1. Boundary maintenance
  2. Adaptation and social change
  3. Safety valve
  4. Publicity function
  5. Warning device
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13
Q

Boundary maintenance?

A
  • the reaction to crime unites society as all are appalled by it.
  • reinforces what’s right and wrong, as well as our commitment to the value consensus.
  • purpose of social control and punishment is not to remove crime but maintain collective conscience at certain level of strength.
  • e.g., kidnapping.
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14
Q

Adaptation and social change?

A
  • little crime prevents discussions of social order and consequent change.
  • must be some challenge which may appear deviant to give rise to new morality.
  • if new ideas were suppressed, no change would occur.
  • e.g., homosexuality.
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15
Q

Safety valve?

A
  • can provide a harmless expression of discontent.
  • e.g., prostitution allows men to release sexual frustrations without threatening monogamous nuclear family.
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16
Q

Publicity function?

A
  • media, the police, and courts publicly show us bad behaviour and the consequences to deter us from committing crime.
  • e.g., murderer sentenced to death penalty.
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17
Q

Warning device?

A
  • shows us that society is faulty.
  • e.g., truancy shows problems within education.
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18
Q

Strengths of Durkheim’s view? (2)

A
  1. helps to consider positive functions of crime and how it might benefit society.
  2. the first to analyse deviance in terms of a broad sociological theory.
19
Q

Weaknesses of Durkheim’s view? (4)

A
  1. doesn’t tell us what the right amount of crime is.
  2. other factors contribute to crime rather than just socialisation e.g., mental illness and revenge.
  3. crime isn’t positive for everyone e.g., victim and their family.
  4. doesn’t always promote solidarity, it can make people feel isolated e.g., victim.
20
Q

What is utilitarian crime?

A

crime committed for monetary gain.

21
Q

What is anomie?

A

‘normlessness’

21
Q

What is non-utilitarian crime?

A

crime committed to release anger/frustration e.g., vandalism

22
Q

Merton’s strain theory?

A
  • there’s a strain between society’s cultural goals (money) and the social structures.
  • unequal opportunities provided for everyone to achieve these goals e.g., w/c.
  • due to failure to achieve these goals legitimately, turn to illegitimate means.
  • there crime occurs due to the strain being felt.
  • anomie occurs - imbalance between cultural goals and institutionalised means.
23
Q

Merton’s view on ‘The American Dream’?

A
  • is not meritocratic, as it seems, not everybody is given equal chances to obtain opportunities due to structural organisations inhibiting this.
  • strain leads to crime.
24
Q

Merton’s deviant adaptations to strain?

A
  1. conformist
  2. innovator
  3. ritualist
  4. retreatist
  5. rebel
25
Q

Conformist characteristics?

A
  • accept cultural goals and strives to achieve them legitimately
  • usually m/c
26
Q

Innovator characteristics?

A
  • accepts and emotionally invests goals in society but use illegitimate means.
  • usually w/c
27
Q

Ritualist characteristics?

A
  • abandoned goals and reject cultural obligation to aspire
  • internalised legitimate means
  • usually people in dead end jobs
28
Q

Retreatist characteristics?

A
  • reject both the goals and legitimate means
  • retreat into their own world
  • usually outcasts and druggies
29
Q

Rebel characteristic?

A
  • reject existing goals and means
  • create their own, wishing to create an alternative society
30
Q

Strengths of Merton?

A
  • explains patterns of official stats, usually w/c
  • shows how deviant behaviour can arise from the pursuit of mainstream goals.
31
Q

Weaknesses of Merton?

A
  • deterministic, not all w/c choose to deviate as a result of strain
  • takes official stats at face value - even though they over represent w/c
  • only accounts for utilitarian crimes
  • ignores that not everyone has same goals (value consensus)
32
Q

What do subcultural strain theorists argue?

A

Crime and deviance is caused by delinquent subcultures with different values from those of mainstream society.
Subcultures provide alternative opportunity structures for those denied a chance to achieve goals legitimately.

33
Q

Cohens view on Merton?

A
  • agree that deviance is due to w/c inability to achieve goals.
  • critique = deviance isn’t an individual response, but a group response.
  • critique = focuses solely on utilitarian crime but not non-utilitarian.
34
Q

Cohen : Status frustration?

A
  • focus on w/c boys in school who suffer from cultural dep & unable to succeed so fall to bottom of official status hierarchy.
  • they face status frustration so resolve this by rejecting mainstream m/c values and turn to other boys in same situation, forming delinquent subculture.
  • subculture values are spite & hostility for those outside it, they invert mainstream society values. they encourage what society condemns.
  • offers an alternative status hierarchy where they can win status through delinquency.
35
Q

Strength and weakness of Cohen?

A

strength = explains why non-utilitarian crime occurs.
weakness = assumes w/c boys once had m/c goals, maybe they never did.

36
Q

Cloward and Ohlin : illegitimate opportunities overview?

A
  • agree with Merton
  • however, they believe different subcultures respond differently to lack of opportunities
  • difference in response is due to unequal access to illegitimate opportunities.
  • e.g., diff neighbourhoods.
  • as a result, 3 diff subcultures.
37
Q

Cloward and Ohlin different subcultures?

A
  1. criminal subculture - areas with established hierarchy of professional adult crime which provide youth with role models to teach them skills to grow on the criminal career.
  2. conflict subculture - high population turnovers cause high levels of disorganisation, opportunities only offered in loosely disorganised gangs who use violent crimes, and ‘turf’ territory.
  3. retreatist subculture - fail at both the legitimate and illegitimate ways to obtain societies goals, use illegal drugs.
38
Q

Weaknesses of Cloward and Ohlin?

A
  1. doesn’t explain crimes of the wealthy
  2. assume that everyone starts of sharing the same mainstream success goals.
  3. Miller - independent subcultures within the w/c subculture don’t value success in the first place so aren’t frustrated by failure.
  4. ignore wider power structure including those who make and enforce the law.
39
Q

Miller subcultural theories of deviance?

A
  • w/c boys are socialised into a number of distinct values making them more likely to engage in delinquent behaviour.
  • she describes these as ‘focal concerns’
40
Q

Miller focal concerns list?

A
  1. excitement - seek out excitement
  2. toughness - wish to prove that they are tough
  3. smartness - use wit e.g., smart remarks
  4. trouble - linked to excitement and toughness, they might well find themselves in trouble
  5. autonomy - wish to be independent and not reliant on others
  6. fate - believe future is already decided
41
Q

Explanation of focal concerns?

A
  • none of these values on their own mean that crime is inevitable.
  • seeking excitement might lead to non-utilitarian crime, toughness/smartness/trouble might result in fighting, autonomy might lead to people to take matters into their own hands rather than asking for help, fatalism might mean they don’t consider the consequences of their actions as the future is already written.
42
Q

Evaluation of Miller?

A
  • not clear what Miller refers to as the ‘lower class’ really does have such distinct norms and values from the rest of society.
  • don’t consider gender.
  • fem - focal concerns might be masculine traits rather than w/c.
43
Q

Criticism of Miller?

A

Marxist argue that reason w/c boys commit crime is due to experiences in capitalist society and poverty.

Y13 Sociology (3 decks)

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