Functionalism And Crime Flashcards
Crime definition
Illegal act e.g. Murder
Deviant definition
Actions that differ from group norms it can be non-serious crimes e.g. Assault/ graffiti
Socialisation
Instilling shared cultures into its members which makes sure individuals internalise the same norms/values
Social control
Rewards for conformity, punishment for deviance, ensuring individuals behave in the way society expects
Inevitability of crime
Functionalists see too much crime as destabilising society, however crime is inevitable and universal. A crime free society is a contradiction
-Durkheim,” crime is normal… An integral part of all healthy societies”.
2 reasons crime/deviance is found in all societies
- Not everyone’s properly socialised into shared norms/ values
2.in complex modern societies, there is diversity of lifestyle and values. Different groups develop their own subcultures with different norms and values
Durkheim- modern societies
- Modern societies are normlessness, or anomie the rules governing behaviour becomes weaker
- this is because modern societies have complex, specialised division of labour, so individuals become more different from each other, weakening shared culture or collective consciousness and results in increased deviances
-e.g. Durkheim sees anomie as a cause of suicide - increase in secularisation decreases value consensus
Positive functions of crime
- Boundary maintenance, the purpose of society is to reaffirm society’s shared rules and reinforce social solidarity
-e.g. Courtrooms, which dramatise public shame and stigmatise the offender
- Cohen— media’s “ dramatisation of evil”. He says media coverage of crime creates ‘folk devils’
- Adaption and change
-All change starts with deviance, individuals with with new ideas, norms and values cannot be stifled by social control. It takes defiance to change existing norms, which takes the form as ‘deviance’. However their values give rise to new culture and morality
-if these peoples views are suppressed then society will be unable to make adaptive change
Too much or too little crime is not desirable because it creates malfunctioning of the social system:
- Too much- threatens to tear the bonds of society apart
- Too little- society is controlling its members too much and prevents freedom and change
Other functions of crime- Davis
Prostitution acts as a safety valve for the release of men’s sexual frustration without threatening of monogamous nuclear family
Polsky
Pornography safely ‘channels’ a variety of sexual desires away from alternatives such as adultery so the family is not in danger
Cohen- institution deviance
- deviance in institutions indicates its not functioning properly
- e.g. high rates of truancy means the education system does have policy makers that are making a appropriate changes
Erickson- developed on inevitable of crime
- when deviance performs positive social functions then society is organised so as to promote deviance
- the true function of agencies of social control ( police) is to sustain a certain level of crime rather than to cease it entirely
- agencies of social control produce crime rather than prevent it
Societies regulate and manage crime rather than eliminate it
-For example carnivals or festivals all license misbehaviour that In other contexts might be punished
- this shows how deviance is integral to society and not that everything is bad for society
Criticisms/ evaluation
-doesn’t offer to say how much deviance is fine
- crime does not always exist for these things, social solidarity
- ignore how crime affects different groups or individuals within society, e.g. the ‘safety valve’ isn’t functional for illegal trafficked sex workers, so crime isn’t ’functional’ for everyone
- crime doesn’t always promote social solidarity, it may lead to isolation like women staying indoors out of fear
Robert K. Mertons strain theory
People engage in deviant behaviours because they can’t achieve socially approved goals by legitimate means.
Structural factors
Societies unequal opportunity structure
Cultural factors
The strong emphasis on success goals and the weaker emphasis on using legitimate means to achieve them
Deviance is the 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, e.g. American culture values ‘money success’ ( individual material wealth and high status )
The American Dream
Pressure to deviate, the strain to anomie
The resulting strain between the cultural goal of money success and lack of legitimate opportunities to achieve it produces frustration and this causes pressure which results in illegitimate means of achieving it like crime
American culture on success
The pressure to deviate increases because the American culture puts emphasis on success at any price than doing it legitimately. Winning the game is more important than playing by the rules.
Deviant adaptations to strain
An individuals position in the social structure affects the way they adapt or respond to strain/anomie.
Conformity
Individuals accept the culturally approved goals and strive to achieve them legitimately (MC)
Innovation
Individuals accept the goal of money success but use ‘new’ illegitimate means like theft to achieve it. (Wc)
Ritualism
Individuals give up on trying to achieve goals but have internalised legitimate means and so they follow the rules for their own sake. (typically of lower middle class office workers in dead end, routine jobs)
Retreatism
Individuals reject both the goals and legitimate means and become dropouts e.g. outcasts and drug addicts
Rebellion
Individuals reject existing society goals and means but replace it with revolutionary change and create a new kind of society. These include political radicals
Evaluation of Merton- POSITIVES
he explains patterns in OS showing that:
- most crime is poverty crime because Americans value wealth
- LC crime rates are higher because its harder to obtain wealth legitimately
Evaluation NEGATIVES
- takes OS at face value, these over represent WC crimes ( phenomenon) and is too deterministic because not all WC pupils deviate
- Marxists argue that it ignores the power of the ruling class to make and enforce laws in ways that criminalise the poor only
- assumes there is no value consensus and that everyone strives for ‘money success’ which ignores the possibility that not everyone shares this goal
-only accounts for utilitarian crime for gain and not crimes of violence. It also doesn’t account for state crimes like genocide - it ignores the role of group deviance like delinquent subcultures
Subcultural strain theory
-Sees deviance as a product of delinquent subcultures with different values that those of mainstream society
-subcultures provide alternatives than those who are denied the chance to achieve legitimately ( mainly wc)
- subcultures are a solution and functional for the members even if it isn’t for society
- criticises Mertons theory and builds on it
A.K Cohen- status frustration
Cohen agrees with Mertons idea of crime being a wc phenomenon and the cause being lack of success goals however he criticises him for two reasons:
- Merton ignores that much deviance is committed in groups
-Merton ignores crimes like assault and vandalism which have no economic motive
Deviance amongst WC boys- A.K.Cohen
Wc boys face anomie because they are in the middle class dominated school system. They suffer from cultural deprivation and lack the skills to achieve
- this inability to succeed in a MC world leaves them at the bottom of the OFFICIAL STATUS HIERARCHY
- the boys suffer from status frustration and find it difficult to adjust to the low standards they are given by mainstream society
- resolution- rejecting mainstream middle class values and turning to delinquent subcultures
Alternative status hierarchy
- having failed the legitimate opportunity they create their own illegitimate opportunity structure in which they can win status through their peers through their delinquent actions
Evaluation
- it offers an explanation of non utilitarian crimes and his explanation of status frustration, VALUE INVERSION and alternative status hierarchy help explain non economic delinquency like truancy
- however he assumes WC boys start off sharing mc success goals only to reject these when they fail
- ignores the role of group deviance such as delinquent subcultures
Subcultural strain theory
Sees deviance as the product of a delinquent subculture with different values than those of mainstream society
- subcultures provide an alternative opportunity structure for those denied the chance to achieve legitimately ( mainly WC)
-subcultures are a solution to the problem and therefore functional for the members not society as a whole
- criticises and builds on Mertons ideas
A.k Cohen agrees with the American dream idea but criticises Merton for two reason:
- Merton ignores the group deviance especially among the young
- Merton only focuses on utilitarian crimes committed for material gain and ignores crimes like assault which have no material gain
Cohen on working class boys deviance
He argues they faced anomie in a middle class dominated school system and so the lack of cultural and skill causes failure and leaves them at the bottom of the official status hierarchy
- they therefore suffer status frustration and find it hard to adjust to low status they are given by mainstream society
- to solve the frustration they reject mc values and turn to other similar boys to form a delinquent subculture
Alternative status hierarchy
Subcultures function is that it offers a alternative status hierarchy in which they can achieve having failed legitimately so the boys create their own illegitimate structure to win status from their peers through delinquent actions that go against mainstream culture like truancy and violence
Evaluation of A.K Cohen
-provides an explanation for non utilitarian crimes
- his ideas of status frustration, VALUE INVERSION and status hierarchy explain non economic delinquency like vandalism and truancy
- However he like Merton says that WC boys start off sharing middle class’s goals only to reject it when it fails however it ignores the idea that they might not share these goals in the first place so never saw themselves as failures
Cloward and Owen argument
They have similar ideas as the earlier however they say that not everyone adapts by doing ‘innovation’ crimes like theft. Different subcultures respond differently to a lack of legitimate opportunities like violence and drugs
- it is not only unequal access to legitimate opportunities but also ILLEGITIMATE opportunities e.g. even if you fail school you can still not be able to be a safecracker
Neighbourhoods
Different neighbourhoods offer provide illegitimate opportunities for young people to learn criminals skills and develop criminal careers. This results in 3 different subcultures
Criminal subcultures
- provide youths apprenticeships for career in utilitarian crime
- arise in neighbourhoods with longstanding and stable crime culture with a hierarchy of professional adults
- this allows the young to associate with adult criminals who select the best able and give them training and role models
- they also give opportunities for employment in a criminal career
Conflict subcultures
- arise in high population turnover
-results in lots of disorganisation and prevents a stable professional criminal network developing. - Its absence means only illegitimate opportunities available are within loosely organised groups.
- violence provides a release for Young’s men frustration at their blocked opportunity
- they also earn an alternative source of status by winning turf from rival gangs
- this subculture is described by Cohen
Retreatist subculture
- any neighbourhood
- are typically ‘double failures’
- those who double fail turn to Retreatist subculture where they turn to illegal drug use
Evaluation
- ignores Middle class crime and he over predicts working class crime
- Like Merton and Cohen he ignores wider power structure like the law
-does provide different types of wc deviance In terms of different subcultures
Criticism- South
Found that drug trade is a mixture of ‘disorganised’ crime like the conflict subculture and professional ‘mafia’ style criminal subcultures. Similarity some ‘retreatist’ users are also professional dealers making a living from this utilitarian crime. Cloward and Ohlin say its not possible to be in more than one subculture
Strain theories= reactive theories
They explain subcultures as forming in reaction to the failure of mainstream goals, in reality not everyone shares these mainstream goals
Walter B Miller and evaluation
Argues the lower class has its own independent subculture separate from mainstream culture with its own values. It doesn’t value success so the members are not frustrated by failure
Evaluation
- although he says deviance is widespread he says it arises out of an attempt to achieve their own goals mot mainstream ones
Matza
Most delinquent subcultures are not committed to their subculture but merely drift in and out of delinquency
Recent strain theories
Have argued that young people pay pursue a variety of goals other than money success like popularity with peers or the desire to be treated like ‘real men’ or autonomy with adults
- similar to early strain theorists they argue that failure to achieve these goals result in delinquency
- they also say that mc juveniles may also have struggle achieving this goal thus offering an offer for mc delinquency
Institutional anomie theory- Messner and Rosenfeld
-focuses on the American dream and argue the obsession with money and ‘winner takes all’ mentality creates pressure towards crime by encouraging an anomie cultural environment in which people adopt criminal activities in the pursuit for wealth and success
- Countries like the US and UK value money which undermines institutions like school
- school is used to prepare people for the labour market at the expense of inculcating respect for others.
- conclusion: free-market capitalism and lacking adequate welfare provision (USA) produces high crime inevitably
Downes and Hansen- support
- found societies that spent more on welfare had lower rates of Imprisonment
- supports Messner and Rosenfield idea that societies that protect the poor from the worst excesses of the free market have less crime
Savelsberg
Applies strain theory to post communist societies in Eastern Europe
- this saw rapid crime increase after communism in 1989
- communist values are replaced by new western capitalist goals of individual ‘money success’
