Functionalism Flashcards
What sociologists are associated with C&D
Durkheim
Merton
Cohen
Cloward/Ohlin
What is organic analogy
When all the institutions work in harmony to maintain their positive functions in society
What is social solidarity
When members of society feel they belong, they don’t experience ‘normlessness’ as a result of feeling left out (anomie).
What’s value consensus
When there is a shared agreement on the values in society
What’s collective conscience
When everyone in society has the same morals and know what’s right and what’s wrong
Why is functionalism a structural consensus theory
Because the shared norms and beliefs passed through social institutions shapes and constrains a persons behaviour
What does Durkheim say about crime in society
It’s inevitable, universal and relative; integral to a healthy society.
What are the functions of crime according to functionalists
- Boundary maintenance
- Adaption and change
- Safety valve
- Warning light
What is boundary maintenance
When someone commits a crime, they’re convicted and punished, this will deter others from committing crime too. Seeing what happens to criminals unites society, reinforcing the value consensus and strengthening social solidarity.
What is adaption and change
Change only happens when people deviate from social norms. Social change happens when people respond positively to the deviant behaviour. Eventually it becomes normalised and laws change.
What is a safety valve
Some functionalists believe deviance allows people to ‘let off steam’ in a relatively harmless way, allowing them to remain ‘functional’. For example, prostitution is a way for men to de-stress without threatening the family institution.
What is a warning light
Other functionalists argue when people deviate from norms and values it’s because something in society is breaking down. This prompts those in power to change something.
Why is crime inevitable according to Durkheim
Because of an increase in modern industrialised societies and privatised primary socialisation, it leads to an increase in deviance too. It can lead to differences in how families raise/socialise their children; inadequate socialisation can also lead to deviance.
Durkheim also states anomie is on the rise because of the increase in diversity; shared views become different more from each other, groups separate.
What are the evaluations of Durkheim’s view on crime
- He argues a certain amount of crime is necessary for a healthy society but doesn’t say how much crime
- Ignores negative impact of crime in victims and families
- Criticised for ignoring conflict in society; I.e. laws are usually made with one groups benefit in mind.
What does Merton argue in society
There is a value consensus in society.
There’s a stronger emphasis on the goal and not the legitimate means to meet those cultural goals.
Therefore crime is committed.
What is Merton’s strain theory
There is the American dream (wealth, big house, nice car etc.) and legitimate means to meet that goal (working hard, doing well in school).
The American dream is supposedly achievable because society is ‘meritocratic’.
However, meritocracy is also argued to be a myth so when people can’t meet these cultural goals, strain is experienced, leading to anomie.
What are the 5 responses to strain?
- Conformity- accept the goals and strive to achieve legitimately
- Retreatism- reject both goals and legitimate means and drop out of society
- Rebellion- replace old goals with new ones to bring about social change
- Ritualism- give up on the goal but have internalised the legitimate means and follow them for their own sake
- Innovation- accept the money success goal but use illegitimate means to achieve it; typical of those who lack legitimate opportunities
What are the criticisms of Merton’s strain theory
- Too deterministic; not all w/c people turn to crime
- Ignores group offending, focuses on individual
- Takes OCS at face value
- Focuses on utilitarian crime
What do subcultural strain theories criticise Merton for? (Cohen/Cloward & Ohlin)
They argue Merton ignores group offending; they argue deviance is a result of delinquent subcultures; these subcultures offer their lower-classes members a solution to the problem of how to gain the status they cannot achieve by legitimate means.
What does Cohen argue
Argues there is status frustration which leads to people committing crime
What is status frustration and how does it occur
all young people aspire to reach cultural goals of a good lifestyle, status and respect; m/c pupils can achieve this but w/c pupils can’t because of inequality; they experience status frustration because of the lack of status and respect they gain from teachers, peers and the education system, leading to a poor lifestyle in society.
How does status frustration lead to crime
Because w/c are frustrated with the lack of status and respect m/c pupils gain easily, they often turn to subcultures (gangs) and form their own n&v’s, gaining status and respect from each other, rather than teachers and society.
What are criticisms of Cohen
- while he offers an explanation for non-utilitarian crime, he assumes all w/c boys start off by sharing m/c goals for success.
- ignores they never shared these goals and so weren’t reacting to failure.
Miller criticises Cohen for this assumption., and further agues w/c males have a subculture around FOCAL CONCERNS (toughness, masculinity etc.); he argues these concerns are exaggerated, therefore, delinquency is a result of over conformity to w/c subculture rather than rejection of m/c values.
What do Cloward and Ohlin argue about crime
Argue Merton and Cohen fail to appreciate the illegitimate opportunity structure and for having a ‘one size fits all’ approach.
Not everyone has the same access and chances to be a criminal.
They proposed different neighbourhoods provide different illegitimate opportunities to learn criminal skills and develop careers.
Depending on their access, they’ll enter into 1 of 3 deviant subcultures.
What are the 3 deviant subcultures Cloward and Ohlin propose
- criminal subculture with established networks focused on utilitarian crimes; in neighbourhoods with stable criminal culture.
- conflict subculture existing in areas with high pop. turnover with limited access to legitimate or illegitimate opportunity structures; activities are usually violent.
- retreatist subcultures are formed where people have failed to succeed in both legitimate and illegitimate structures so are ‘double failures’; activities focus on illegal drug abuse.
What are criticisms of Cloward and Ohlin
- over exaggerating differences between subcultures, in reality there’s a lot of overlap.
- Matza criticises subcultural theories for making the delinquent out from being different from other people. If this was true, crime would be widespread and persistent, Matza says people drift in and out of delinquent behaviour.
What are overall criticisms of Functionalist views on crime
- they all assume everyone is committed to same mainstream goals
- only focus on w/c crimes, ignoring m/c crimes
- assume OCS are true
- largely ignore female offending
