functionalism Flashcards
the inevitability of crime
2 reasons why crime and deviance are found in all societies:
- not everyone is equally effectively socialised into the shared norms and values, so some individuals prone to deviate
- there is diversity of lifestyles and values. different groups develop their own subcultures with distinctive norms and values, and what the members of the subculture regard as normal, mainstream culture may see as deviant.
anomie
means normlessness.
- durkheim argues that anomie arises when there is rapid social change, because existing norms become unclear or outdated.
- mertons’s strain theory argues that where individuals lack legitimate means of achieving culturally prescribed goals it results in a strain to anomie, which some resolve by adopting illegitimate means.
- boundary maintenance
crime produces a reaction from society, uniting its members in condemnation of the wrongdoer and reinforcing their commitment to the shared norms and values.
- adaptation and change
all change starts with acts of deviance. individuals with new ideas, values and ways of living must not be completely stifled by the weight of social control.
- for durkheim, neither a very high or very low level of crime is desirable:
* too much crime threatens to tear the bonds of society apart
* too little means that society is repressing and controlling, stifling individual freedom and preventing change
davis (other functions of crime)
argues prostitution acts as a safety valve for the release of men’s sexual frustration without threatening the monogamous nuclear family
polsky (other functions of crime)
pornography safely ‘channels’ a variety of sexual desires away form alternatives such as adultery, which would pose a greater threat to the family.
cohen (other functions of crime)
deviance acts as a warning that an institution is not functioning properly. e.g high rates of truancy may tell us there are problems with the education system.
criticisms of durkheim
- crime doesn’t always promote solidarity. may have the opposite effect, leading to people becoming more isolated e.g forcing women to stay inside in fear of attack
- durkheim offers no way of knowing how much crime is the right amount.
- ignores how crime might affect different groups or individuals in society.
structural factors
societys unequal opportunity structure
cultural factors
the strong emphasis on success goals and the weaker emphasis on using legitimate means to achieve them
mertons strain theory
deviance is the result of a strain between two things: the goals that a culture encourages individuals to choose and what the institutional structure allows them to achieve legitimately
the american dream
the goal creates a desire to succeed, and lack of opportunity creates a pressure to adopt illegitimate means while the norms are not strong enough to prevent some from succumbing to this temptation
retreatism
response means giving up or losing sight of both means and goals by opting out or dropping out of conventional society e.g drink or drug abuse
conformity
response of the majority, the stereotypical ‘law-abiding citizen’ who uses conventional means such as a job to pursue the approved goals of society which may never be reached
rebellion
Individuals reject the existing society’s goals and means, but they replace them with new ones in a desire to bring about revolutionary change and create a new kind of
society. Rebels include political radicals and counter-cultures such as hippies.
innovation
Individuals accept the goal of money success but use ‘new’, illegitimate means such as theft or fraud to achieve it. As we have seen, those at the lower end of the
class structure are under greatest pressure to innovate.
ritualism
Individuals give up on trying to achieve the goals, but have internalised the legitimate means and so they follow the rules for their own sake. This is typical of lowermiddle class office workers in dead-end, routine jobs.
evaluations of merton
- It takes official crime statistics at face value. These overrepresent working-class crime, so Merton sees crime as a mainly working-class phenomenon. It is also too deterministic: the working class experience the most strain, yet they don’t all deviate.
- Marxists argue that it ignores the power of the ruling class to make and enforce the laws in ways that criminalise the poor but not the rich.
- It assumes there is a value consensus – that everyone strives for ‘money success’ – and ignores the possibility that many may not share this goal.
- It only accounts for utilitarian crime for monetary gain, and not crimes of violence, vandalism etc. It is also hard to see how it could account for state crimes such as
genocide or torture. - It explains how deviance results from individuals adapting to the strain to anomie but ignores the role of group deviance, such as delinquent subcultures.
cohen - status frustration
focuses on wc boys who face anomie in the mc dominated school system. they suffer cultural deprivation and lack skills to achieve, which leaves them at the bottom of the official status hierarchy.
they resolve frustration by rejecting mainstream mc values and turn to other boys in the same situation, forming or joining a delinquent subculture
alternative status hierarchy
the delinquent subculture inverts the values of mainstream society. e.g society upholds regular school attendance and respect for property, whereas in the subculture, boys gain status from vandalising property and truanting.
- having failed in the legitimate opportunity structure, the boys create their own illegitimate opportunity structure in which they can win status from their peers through their delinquent actions
evaluations of a.k cohen
+ offers an explanation of non-utilitarian deviance. helps to explain non-economic delinquency such as vandalism and truancy
- like merton, cohen assumes that wc boys start off by sharing those mc success goals, only to reject these when they fail. ignores the possibility that they didn’t share these goals in the first place and so never saw themselves as failures
cloward and ohlin
agree that wc youths are denied legitimiate opportunities but not everyone in this situation adapts to it by turning to ‘innovation’.
different subcultures respond in different ways to the lack of legitimate opportunity.
key reason is not only unequal access but unequal access to illegitimate opportunity structures
criminal subcultures
- provide youths with an apprenticeship for a career in utilitarian crime,
- arise only in neighbourhoods with a longstanding and stable criminal culture with an established hierarchy of professional adult criminals
- allows the young to associate with adult criminals, who can select those with the right aptitudes and abilities and provide them with training and role models as well as opportunities for employment on the criminal career laddeer
conflict subcultures
- arises in areas of high populations. results in high levels of disorganisation. prevents stable professional criminal network developing.
- only illegitimate opportunities available are within loosely organised gangs. in these, violence provides a release for young men’s frustrations at their blocked opportunities, as well as an alternative source of status that they can earn by winning territory from rival gangs.
retreatist subcultures
when someone has failed in both legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structure, they may turn to a retreatist subculture based on illegal drug use
evaluation of cloward and ohlin
- ignores crimes of the wealthy
- overpredicts amounts of wc crime
+ provides an explanation for different types of wc deviance in terms of different subcultures
south
found the drug trade is a mixture of both ‘disorganised’ crime and professional ‘mafia’ style criminal subcultures. likewise, some ‘retreatist’ users are also professional dealers making a living from this utilitarian crime. in cloward and ohlins theory, it would not be possible to belong to more than one of these subcultures
strain theories have been called reactive theories…
because they explain subcultures as forming in reaction to the failure to achieve mainstream goals. they have been criticised for assuming that everyone starts off sharing the same mainstream success goals
miller
wc developed an independent set of norms and values to mainstream society through which they gain status.
status is based upon satisfying ‘focal concerns’ of typical wc value
focal concerns examples
- excitement; demonstrated through drinking, drug usage, sexual encounters, fighting
- toughness; led to criminal acts such as assault and bodily harm. evidence through higher levels of conviction for wc males for violent crime
- smartness; ability to outwit others through gambling and gaming
- autonomy; anti-authority views of wc males led to dealing with issues themselves rather than alerting authority
eval of miller
- marxists would say wc norms and values are only seen as subcultural because of ruling-class control of social institutions
- focal concerns is based on behaviour of males and is deterministic in nature
matza (not a functionalist)
delinquency and drift
- suggests that criminality is determined by individual factors rather than social influence
- delinquents have similar values and voice feelings of outrage about crime in general
- most people drift in and out of delinquency as they hold different sets of values
matza (not a functionalist)
conventional values
- values we hold when performing conventional roles in society
matza (not a functionalist)
subterranean values
(greed, power, lust, hatred, prejudice, aggression and malice
- delinquents were less likely to be able control subterranean values and would act inappropriately
- most common in young adulthood as young males looked to assert their place in society
matza (not a functionalist)
techniques of neutralisation
denial of responsibility, denial of the victim, denial of injury, appeal to higher loyalties
