functionalism Flashcards
durkheim:
crime is inevitable
every known society has some level of crime and deviance
‘crime is normal … an integral part of all healthy societies’.
two 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 will be prone to deviate.
- particularly in complex modern societies, there is a 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.
modern societies tend towards anomie or normlessness - rules governing behaviour become weaker and less clear-cut because modern societies have a complex, division of labour, which leads to individuals becoming increasingly different from one another.
weakens the shared culture or collective conscience and results in higher levels of deviance
durkheim - positive functions of crime:
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.
explains the function of punishment - not to make the wrongdoer suffer or mend their ways, nor is it to remove crime from society
the purpose of punishment is to reaffirm society’s shared rules and reinforce social solidarity
may be done through the rituals of the courtroom - dramatises wrongdoing and publicly shame and stigmatise the offender -
reaffirms the values of the law abiding majority and discourages others from rule breaking
durkheim - positive functions of crime:
adaptation and change
all change starts with an act of deviance
individuals with new ideas, values and ways of living must not be completely stifled by the weight of social control
must be some scope for them to challenge and change existing norms and values, this will inevitably appear as deviance.
authorities often persecute religious visionaries who espouse a new ‘message’ or value-system.
however, in the long their values may give rise to a new culture and morality those with new ideas are suppressed, society will stagnate and be unable to make necessary adaptive changes
too much crime threatens to tear the bonds of society apart
too little crime means that society is repressing and controlling its members, stifling individual freedom and preventing change
davis
crime acts as a safety valve, allowing people to ‘let off steam’
they can de stress and remain functional to society
cohen
deviance is a warning that an institution is not functioning properly
for example, high rates of truancy may tell us that there a problems within the education system and that policy makers need to make appropriate changes to it
erikson
if deviance performs positive social functions then perhaps society is actually organised to promote deviance
suggests that the true function of agencies of social control such as the police may actually be to sustain a certain level of crime rather than to rid society of it
criticisms of durkheim
offers no way of knowing how much deviance is the right amount.
explains the existence of crime in terms of its supposed function - to strengthen solidarity. this doesn’t mean society actually creates crime in advance with the intention of strengthening solidarity. just because crime does these things is not necessarily why it exists in the first place.
ignores how it might affect different groups or individuals within society. it fails to ask, ‘functional for whom?’
crime doesn’t always promote solidarity. it may have the opposite effect, leading to people becoming more isolated, for example forcing women to stay indoors for fear of attack.
some crimes do reinforce collective sentiments, for example uniting the community condemnation of a brutal attack.
merton’s strain theory
developed durkheim’s concept of anomie to explain deviance combining two elements
- structural factors - society’s unequal opportunity structure
- cultural factors - strong emphasis on success goals and the weaker emphasis on using legitimate means to achieve them
deviance is a result of strain between two things:
- the goals that a culture encourages individuals to achieve
- what the institutional structure of society allows them to achieve legitimately
merton’s strain theory - the american dream
expected to pursue this goal by legitimate means such as study, self discipline, hard work in a career. meritocratic ideology
many disadvantaged groups are denied opportunities to achieve legitimately - poverty, inadequate schooling, and discrimination in the job market may block opportunities
the strain between the cultural goal of money success and the lack of legitimate opportunities to achieve produces frustration, creating pressure to resort to illegitimate means - strain to anomie
pressure to deviate is further increased by the fact that american culture puts more emphasis on achieving success at any price than by achieving through legitimate means
merton - deviant adaptations to strain
conformity - individuals accept the culturally approved. goals and strive to achieve them legitimately. most likely among middle-class individuals who have good opportunities to achieve.
innovation - individuals accept the goal of money success but use ‘new’, illegitimate means such as theft or fraud to achieve it. 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. typical of lower- middle class office workers in dead-end, routine jobs.
retreatism - individuals reject both the goals and the legitimate means and become dropouts. merton includes ‘psychotics, outcasts, vagrants, tramps, chronic drunkards and drug addicts’ as examples.
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.
evaluation of merton
shows how both normal and deviant behaviour can arise from the same mainstream goals
explains patterns shown in official crime statistics
- most crime is property crime
- lower class crime rates are higher because they have the least opportunity to obtain wealth legitimately
takes official statistics at face value - over represents working class crime, seeing crime as a working class phenomenon
too deterministic
marxists argue it ignores the power of the ruling class to make and enforce laws that criminalise the poor
assumes there is a value consensus that everyone strives for the same money goals
only accounts for utilitarian crime
explains how deviance results from individuals adaptation to strain to anomie but ignores the role of group deviance
cohen
agrees with merton that deviance is largely a lower-class phenomenon.
results from the inability of those in the lower classes to achieve mainstream success goals by legitimate means such as educational achievement.
focuses on deviance among working-class boys. he argues that they face anomie in the middle-class dominated school system. they suffer from cultural deprivation and lack the skills to achieve. their inability to succeed in this middle class world leaves them at the bottom of the status hierarchy
the boys suffer status frustration since they face a problem of adjustment to the low status they are given by mainstream society.
they resolve their frustration by rejecting mainstream middle class values and they turn instead to other boys in the same situation forming or joining a delinquent subculture
cohen:
alternative status hierarchy
the subculture’s values are spite, malice, hostility and contempt for those outside it delinquent subculture inverts the values of mainstream society - turns them upside down.
what society condemns, the subculture praises and vice versa society upholds regular school attendance and respect for property whereas in the subculture, boys gain status from damaging property and truanting.
the subculture’s function is that it offers an alternative status hierarchy in which they can achieve
having failed in the legitimate opportunity structure boys create their own illegitimate opportunity structure which they can win status from their peers through their own delinquent actions
evaluation of cohen
offers and explanation for non utilitarian deviance
assumes working class boys share the same goals - some working class may not have seen themselves as failures in the first place
cloward and ohlin
take merton’s ideas as their starting point. they agree working-class youths are denied legitimate opportunities to achieve money success and their deviance stems from their response to their situation
different subcultures respond in different adapts to it by turning to ‘innovation’ - utilitarian crimes. not everyone resorts to violence in response to the lack of legitimate opportunities to achieve
one of the key reasons why subcultural responses occur is because of unequal access to illegitimate opportunity structures
different neighbourhoods provide different illegitimate opportunities for young people to learn criminal skills and develop criminal careers
