Functionalism Flashcards
Why do people commit crime according to Durkheim?
DURKHEIM believes there is a tendency towards anomie and that crime is inevitable, disturbing social stability. He believes it is good for society. Not everyone is effectively socialised into the same shared cultures and norms and values, different subcultures create their own norms and values, which some mainstream cultures find deviant
What are the four reasons functionalists believe crime is good for society?
Boundary Maintenance
Adaptation and Change
Safety Valve
Warning Light
Boundary Maintenance
Crime produces a reaction from society. Which reinforces commitment (of the public) to the shared norms and values. Creating social solidarity.
AO3 of boundary maintenance
Recognises how C&D may be functional for society but ignores how it may affect individuals - neglects the micro ( e.g. murder is not functional for society)
Adaptation and Change
All changes start with an act of deviance ( think of the snowball effect and adapt it to a deviant act).
Durkheim believes there should be a scope for them to challenge existing norms and values to bring about change.
AO3 adaptation and change
Society requires a certain amount of deviance to successfully function, but Durkheim doesn’t say how much is the right amount.
Safety Valve
Davis argues that crime can release men’s sexual frustration without threatening a nuclear family. This can prevent further more serious disruptions.
AO3 safety valve
Radical feminists would argue this is a function of prostitution, objectification of women. Using women to satisfy men. They would also argue that the law is in men’s favour, it was made for men.
Warning light
Cohen argues deviance indicates when an institution is malfunctioning. Informs society a change needs to be made.
AO3 warning light
Marxists would argue norms and laws reflect the wishes of the population, it does not consider the possibility that powerful people are imposing their values on the rest of society.
Strain theory
Strain theories a argues that people engage in deviant behaviour when they are unable to achieve socially approved goals by legitimate means
There is a strain between cultural goals ( that encourage people to achieve) and structural factors (the structure of society- achieving legitimately or illegitimately). ROBERT MERTON
Structural factors
Society’s unequal opportunity structure
Cultural factors
The strong emphasis on success and weaker emphasis on achieving these through legitimate means
The American Dream
Everyone can have the life they desire if they work hard for it.
AO3
Focuses on utilitarian crime, ignores collective deviance. Not everyone has the same the opportunities.
5 adaptions to strain
Conformity - accepting the means and the goals
Innovation - accepting the goals but not the means
Ritualistic - accepting the means but giving up the goal
Retreatism - rejecting both means and goals
Rebellion - rejecting both means and goals but creating their own
Subcultural theories
They believe deviance as the product of delinquent subcultures. Offering lower class members a solution to the problem of how to gain to gain status they cannot achieve by legitimate means.
What does Cohen believe?
Deviance is the result of lower classes’ inability to achieve mainstream success goals by legitimate means such as education.
Cohen (strain theory)
WC boys face anomie in the MC education system. They are culturally deprived, leaving them at the bottom of status hierarchy. Therefore they suffer status frustration. They resolve this by turning to others in the same situation - forming a subculture. ( creating an alternative status hierarchy through illegitimate opportunities).
AO3 cohen (strain theory)
Miller - focus concerns disagree with cohens view on crime and believe that WC never share the same cultural goals as MC.
Cloward and Ohlin
They agree with Merton that WC youths are denied legitimate opportunities and their deviance stems from their response to this. Not everyone does this by turning to innovation. Some resort to violence, others to drug use.
They identify three differences subcultures:
Professional criminal subcultures
Conflict subcultures consisting of gangs
Retreatist subcultures consisting of dropouts
Criminal subcultures (professionals)
- offer an apprenticeship in utilitarian crime
- usually in big high crime rate cities with high access to illegal activity
- hierarchy of professional adult crime
- long term criminal culture
Conflict Subculture (gangs)
- in areas on high population turnover
- alternative status is earned through winning ‘turf’
- fewer illegitimate opportunities
- violence provides a release for blocked opportunities
Retreatist subcultures (dropouts)
- double failures, fail in both legitimate & illegitimate opportunities
- least amount of access to illegal activity (drugs)
- in any neighbourhood, not everyone who wants to be a criminal actually succeeds
AO3 Cloward and Ohlin
C&O ignore the crime of the wealthy, and over predict the amount of WC crime.
Matza - delinquents are not strongly committed to their subcultures, but merely drift in and out of delinquency, at different levels.
