Crime and Deviance - Functionalist, strain and subcultural theories of crime

Question 1

Outline the basics of functionalist theory.

Answer 1

Society is based on shared values and norms known as the collective consciousness or the value consensus - this produces social solidarity and encourages members to cooperate. Society achieves social solidarity via socialisation (instilling shared values into members to help them internalise the value consensus) and social control (rewarding conformity and punishing deviance)

Question 2

Why might functionalists take issue with crime?

Answer 2

It is a threat to the social order if everyone did what they want and ignored the rules of the value consensus - inhibiting social solidarity.

Question 3

What do functionalists view crime as? Give a sociologist.

Answer 3

Too much is a problem but crime itself is an inevitable part of society; Durkheim (1893): “Crime is normal… an integral part of every society.”

Question 4

What are the two functionalist reasons why crime is inevitable?

Answer 4

• Not everyone in a society is equally socialised into the value consensus so some are prone to deviation
• In modern society, there is a complex diversity of lifestyles that lead to the development of subcultures and alternative views of what is normal

Question 5

Why did Durkheim see crime as especially prominent in modern society?

Answer 5

As the division of labour becomes more specialised, individuals become increasingly different from one another which leads to a weakened collective consciousness.

Question 6

What are the two main positive functions of crime for Durkheim?

Answer 6

• Boundary maintenance
• Adaptation and change

Question 7

According to Durkheim (1893), how does crime maintain boundaries? What is, therefore, the function of punishment?

Answer 7

Crime unites society in its condemnation of the wrongdoer and reinforces the value consensus; as such, punishment serves as social control in its reinforcement of social solidarity.

Question 8

Cohen (1972) and ‘folk devils’:

Answer 8

The media ‘dramatizes evil’ and creates ‘folk devils’ to reaffirm the values of the law-abiding majority.

Question 9

How does crime serve the function of adaptation and change? Give an example.

Answer 9

Durkheim (1893) argued that for society to progress, there must be some level of deviation from the norm - if all new ideas are suppressed, society will necessarily stagnate. Homosexuality was illegal until 1967 but people doing it anyway is what led to its ultimate acceptance.

Question 10

What is the perfect amount of crime?

Answer 10

Goldilocks shit:
- Too much: threatens to inhibit social solidarity
- Too little: society is unable to progress

Question 11

Davis (1961) and the ‘safety valve’:

Answer 11

Prostitution serves as a release of men’s sexual frustrations without threatening the monogamous nuclear family.

Question 12

Polsky (1967) and pornography:

Answer 12

Pornography channels sexual desires away from more harmful alternatives like adultery and sexual violence.

Question 13

Cohen (1972) and a warning:

Answer 13

Deviance can show that an institution is not working properly; a school that as high truancy is failing to keep students interested and must change.

Question 14

Erikson (1966) and the function of the police:

Answer 14

If we take crime as performing positive functions, then the function of social control agencies isn’t to inhibit crime, it is too produce an adequate amount of crime for societies purposes.

Question 15

How is the functionalist perspective of crime useful?

Answer 15

It shows how crime can be both positive and beneficial for a society, showing how deviance can have latent functions.

Question 16

What are the 4 criticisms of the functionalist perspective of crime?

Answer 16

• Durkheim offers no way of knowing how much crime is ‘right’.
• Just because crime performs functions, it doesn’t actually why crime exists in the first place
• It analyses how crime is functional for society on the whole and and ignores its effect on individuals
• Crime doesn’t always promote solidarity; hate crimes only harm inter-group relations.

Question 17

What is strain theory?

Answer 17

The idea that people engage in deviant behaviour as they are unable to achieve mainstream goals by legitimate means

Question 18

Merton (1938) and strain theory:

Answer 18

Deviance is the result of a strain between two things:
- The goals that a culture encourages of individuals
- What the institutional structure of society allows
them to achieve legitimately

Question 19

Merton (1938) and the American Dream:

Answer 19

Americans experience a strain between their culture’s focus on achieving ‘money success’ combined with the institutional disadvantages of some (poverty, discrimination, etc.) and exacerbated by a lack of focus on achieving these goals by legitimate means causes frustration in Americans and encourages them to commit crimes to achieve ‘money success’.

Question 20

Merton (1938) and the 5 adaptations to strain?

Answer 20

• Conformity: individuals accept the goals and the legitimate means to achieve them, no matter how unlikely their success
• Innovation: individuals accept the goals but use ‘new’, illegitimate means to achieve them
• Ritualism: individuals reject the goals but have internalised the means so follow the rules without hope of achievement
• Retreatism: individuals reject the goals and legitimate means, includes ‘chronic drunkards and drug addicts’
• Rebellion: individuals reject society’s goals and means and create new ones to create revolutionary change, such as political radicals

Question 21

How is Merton (1938) useful?

Answer 21

He explains patterns of crime shown in official statistics, such as the predominance of property crime (due to the value placed on wealth) and working-class crime (due to the greater strain).

Question 22

Give 4 criticisms of Merton’s (1938) strain theory.

Answer 22

• It takes official statistics at face value and overrepresents working-class crime
• It assumes a value consensus and ignore the possibility that many may not share the goal of money success
• It only accounts for utilitarian economic crimes and can’t explain state crimes like genocide
• Explains individual deviance but can’t explain the role of group deviance like deviant subcultures

Question 23

What is the wider subcultural strain theory?

Answer 23

Deviance is the product of delinquent subcultures with values, goals, and means seperate to the mainstream - providing opportunity to those who have been disadvantaged in society.

Question 24

How does Cohen (1955) criticise Merton?

Answer 24

• Merton ignores the role of group deviance
• Merton fails to explain non-utlitarian crimes that have no economic motive

Question 25

Cohen (1955) and status frustration:

Answer 25

Due to cultural deprivation, w/c boys fail to achieve in the middle-class dominated school system so are left at the bottom of the official status hierarchy, thus suffering ‘status frustration’ and creating subcultures with alternative status hierarchies that invert the mainstream to gain status from their peers by doing things like crime and bunking.

Question 26

Give a strength and a weakness of Cohen (1955)

Answer 26

+ Unlike Merton, Cohen is able to explain non-utilitarian crimes via the idea of inverted status hierarchies
- Cohen, like Merton, still assumes that young w/c boys have mainstream values and lose them, ignoring the possibility that they never had them in the first plave so never experienced status frustration

Question 27

Outline Cloward and Ohlin (1960) and variety in response:

Answer 27

Cloward and Ohlin agree with Cohen about subcultures; however, they argue that different subcultures will have different responses to lack of legitimate opportunity based on their access to illegitimate oppotunity - not everyone who fails to be a banker can become a safecracker, you need the skills.

Question 28

Cloward and Ohlin (1960) and the three types of deviant subcultures:

Answer 28

• Criminal subcultures: arise in areas of longstanding and stable criminal hierarchy where adult criminals choose young people as apprentices amd provide training and role models
• Conflict subcultures: arise in areas with too much population turnover for stable criminal culture, causing loosely organised gangs that provide release of frustration via violence and status via gaining ‘turf’ to be the only illegitimate oppurtunity structure
• Retreatist subcultures: those who fail in the illegitimate opportunity structures turn to excessive alcahol and drug use to distract themselves

Question 29

Give 5 criticisms of subcultural strain theory.

Answer 29

• South (2014): C&L draw the line too sharply; drug use has a role in disorganised conflict subcultures and mafia-style criminal subcultures, there are also ‘retreatist’ users who professionally sell drugs
• Miller (1962): lower-class has its own independant subculture, not placing value on success, and crime is concentrated out of an attempt to achieve independent goals
• Matza (1964): most delinquents are not strongly comitted to their subculture but drift in and out of delinquency.
• All theories fail to explain white collar and corporate crime that costs the UK ~£200bn a year

Question 30

What is ‘Institutional Anomie Theory’

Answer 30

Messner and Rosenfield (2001) argue that the individualistic ‘anything goes’ nature of capitalism and the ‘American Dream’ encourages people to commit crimes to achieve.
- Savelsberg (1995): there was a sharp rise in crime rate in former Soviet states due to the loss of collective values