Functionalism Flashcards
Merton
Strain Theory
Strain Theory
- Strain occurs when there aren’t enough legitimate opportunities to achieve successful goals.
**EG) Failing GSCE’S due to lack of access to textbooks. **
-Applied to explain why there is higher crime rates among w/c
- Higher proportion of crime carried out by those in unskilled manual jobs.
-Individuals have 5 ways to adapt to strain.
- 5 adaptations of strain
** RRRIC**
- Anomie occurs when there is imbalance between cultural goals and institutional means.
EG) Some who are motivated to succeed cant due to social barries, inner city teenager boys found it hard to find jobs due to lack of qualifications.)
Reiner
Goes with Merton
- Strain theory has stood the tets of time, can be applied to contemporary examples.
- **Eg) London riots and MPS claiming extra momey for personal living **
**Merton AO3 **
General AO3
- Only explains utilitarian crimes.
- Monetal rewards doesn’t motivate everyone.
- Poeple can fit into multiple categories of the 5 ways to adapt to strain.
Merton AO3
Valier
- Different ethnicities have different cultural goals so it can’t be applied to everyone.
**Durkheim **
- Too much or too little crime is disfunctional.
- social order would brake down without crime.
**Punishment **
- Isnt to remove crime but it controls crime.
- Criminals tets boundaries so they help the law reflect the wishes of the population
- Eg Riots and suffragettes
Society of saints
- deviance would still exist in a society of saints because standards would be so high and any minor offence would be strongly dissaproved of.
- Eg grass cutting laws in America, can be fined thousands or jailed for not cutting lawn.
Durkheim AO3
- It doesn’t explain WHY individuals commit crime, only the reactions to crime.
- Functionalists argue that the criminal justice system benefits everyone by punishing criminals however the conflict theorists argue that not everyone is punished equally.
- He just assumes that the law reflects the interests of the many and ignores the power struggles within society.
- Too predictive, sometimes people don’t agree on punishment (eg, Menendez brothers / Ted Bundy)
- Too positive, not all crimes are benefical. (Eg, with safety valves not all crimes can be safety valves - murder is not benefical).
Hirschi
Bonds of attatchment
**Main Ideas: **
- Most people dont commit crime due to strong social bonds.
- crime is a result of institutions loosing control over individuals and weak institutions are linked to higher crime rates.
Who commits crime?
- often young, single unemployed and most likely males.
Bonds
- Crime occurs when individuals attachment to society is weakened.
**
4 social bonds
-Attatchment
- Commitment
- involvement
- belief
Wilson
Expansion on Hirschi
Chaperonage
- Studied socially deprived families in Birmingham.
- Some parents found the neighbourhood dangerous and chaperoned their kids to school and had them under supervision.
- Prohibited them from seeing undesirable children.
**EG) Katie Hopkins not letting kids play with ‘Tylers or Jacks’ because they have lower class names. ** - Children who were subjected to chaperonage had lower rates of offending.
Gottfredson
Exapnsion on Hirschi
- Expands on control theory
- Crime flows from low self esteem
- crime proovides instant gratification
- committed by short sited impulse and insensitive.
Hirschi AO3
Marxism and Interactionism
Main idea
- Doesn’t explain why some people have more social bonds then others.
Marxism
- Unfair to blame margenalised people because they are victims of unfair society which doesnt provide sufficient oppurtunities for work etc.
Interactionism
- middle class crimes are less likely to appear in statistics but they are just as criminal then working class.
- parent defecit doesnt automatuically lead to kids being criminals.
- There are pull factors such as peer pressure.
