Functionalism and Crime

Question 1

Functionalists see society as based on a shared value consensus, making it what kind of theory?

Answer 1

A consensus theory

Question 2

What two key mechanisms do functionalists feel are used to achieve social solidarity and a smooth functioning society?

Answer 2

Socialisation and social control

Question 3

How do functionalists generally view crime and deviance?

Answer 3

Functionalists feel that irregularities in either socialisation or social control can create disturbances such as crime and deviance. In line with this, functionalists regard laws as legitimate expressions of the common will, and therefore see crime, a rule-breaking behaviour, as going against that common will and presenting a problem for society.

Question 4

Who carried out much of functionalist thinking surrounding crime and deviance?

Answer 4

Emile Durkheim

Question 5

Durkheim year

Answer 5

1893

Question 6

How did Durkheim view crime?

Answer 6

He saw it as being linked to social control, arguing that crime and deviance arise from a lack of social control.

Question 7

How did Durkheim explain lower crime levels in pre-industrial societies?

Answer 7

Durkheim noted that in pre-industrial societies, crime was very low due to the existence of mechanical solidarity, under which religion and family were very powerful agents of socialisation that were able to act as external regulators of the unlimited psychological desires of humans.

Question 8

How did Durkheim explain the existence of deviance in poorly regulated societies?

Answer 8

Durkheim felt that the balance between ‘wants’ and social solidarity can only exist in well-regulated societies, and if social regulation breaks down, the social control of its members’ behaviour weakens and they are left without moral guidance when pursuing their goals.

Question 9

What did Durkheim feel modern societies have a tendency towards?

Answer 9

Anomie

Question 10

Define ‘Anomie’

Answer 10

A state of normlessness in which rules are less clear-cut, diversity has increased, and the shared culture is no longer collective, weakening consensus.

Question 11

Although crime is seen as a negative and destabilising aspect of society, functionalists do not necessarily view it as a problem that needs to be eradicated, unlike which other sociologists?

Answer 11

The New Right

Question 12

Durkheim explained that as all societies contained crime and deviance, and consequently it must perform some useful function in society, crime is a what?

Answer 12

A social fact

Question 13

Durkheim defined crime as being what three things?

Answer 13

Functional, inevitable and normal

Question 14

In what ways did Durkheim argue crime can be functional for society?

Answer 14

1. Small examples of crime can set boundaries of acceptable behaviour in wider society.
2. Crime can also strengthen the social bonds between people and reaffirm shared values when they are drawn together by horrific crimes.
3. Crime does have the capacity to change laws after it has been committed.

Question 15

What is an example of crime strengthening social bonds?

Answer 15

After the Manchester Arena terror attack in 2017, the entirety of the UK came together to condemn terrorism and violence. Shared rituals such as vigils and even large-scale events such as the ‘One Love’ concert by the Manchester United Society enforced a sense of social solidarity, emphasising that we are all one society, believing in the same thing.

Question 16

What is an example of crime having the capacity to change laws?

Answer 16

The introduction of ‘Sarah’s Law’, which allows the police to tell parents, carers and guardians if someone has a record for child sexual offences after, introduced after 8-year-old Sarah Payne was murdered in 2000 by a convicted sex offender.

Question 17

Durkheim argued that deviance helps society to evolve and progress, forcing it to review the way it does things, and learn from past deviance and mistakes, saying…

Answer 17

‘Yesterday’s deviance must become today’s normality.’

Question 18

How did Durkheim argue that crime was inevitable?

Answer 18

As it is impossible for everyone to be equally committed to the norms and values of society. He argued that ‘even in a society of saints a distinction would be made between what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.’

Question 19

Durkheim also argued that what is defined as ‘normal’ behaviour in one society will not always be viewed in the same way in another society, continuing…

Answer 19

“Because there are differences between people, there will always be those who step over the boundary of acceptable behaviour.”

Question 20

Why did Durkheim feel crime was normal?

Answer 20

Because there is no society where there is no crime at all.

Question 21

What did Durkheim point out about individualism and crime?

Answer 21

He pointed out that abnormal levels of crime occur in times of social change and upheaval, when the power of collective conscience is weakened and a state of anomie develops. As a result of this, people look after their own interests rather than respecting their neighbours, and individualism can therefore become a source of crime and deviance.

Question 22

What are three criticisms of Durkheim’s theory of crime and deviance?

Answer 22

1. Durkheim has been criticised for his failure to consider the possible dysfunctions of crime and deviance. For example, it is difficult to see how crimes such as rape or child abuse are functional for society.
2. Marxist sociologists would also argue that he over-emphasises consensus in society, and that crime is actually the product of class conflict.
3. Furthermore, while Durkheim’s theory may be somewhat useful in its assessment of the role crime plays in society, he fails to explain why some social groups appear more likely to commit crime than others.

Question 23

Which later sociologist developed on Durkheim’s idea of anomie?

Answer 23

Robert Merton (1983)

Question 24

What did Merton argue about deviance?

Answer 24

That deviance is a result of strain between the goals that a culture encourages individuals to achieve, and what the same society allows them to achieve through legitimate means.

Question 25

How did Merton argue that the strain to anomie led to deviance?

Answer 25

He noted that even when individuals have their access to attaining these goals blocked, they tend to stay committed to the value consensus, meaning they continue to conform. However, Merton argues whenever some individuals discover that no matter how much effort they make, they cannot achieve the levels of material wealth to which they have been taught to aspire, they can react in a number of different ways in response to strain.

Question 26

What four reactions did Merton argue people can have in response to strain?

Answer 26

1. Innovation; when individuals accept and internalise society's goals but do not have the means of achieving them. 2. Ritualism; this opposes the response of innovation. It is the behaviour of individuals who accept the goals of material success, but believe they have little chance of achieving them, and yet continue to adopt the means that society has promised will help them reach this goal, meaning they do not commit crime. 3. Retreatism; this is when an individual rejects both the values of society and the goals to which those values contribute. Instead of conforming, they reject material success by dropping out of society in various ways. 4. Rebellion; this involves not only a rejection of the typical goals and means of a society, but also an attempt to replace them with alternative values. Marxism is an example of this response.

Question 27

Who carried out a 2006 survey of crime rates and welfare spending in 18 countries?

Answer 27

Downes and Hansen

Question 28

What did Downes and Hansen find?

Answer 28

That societies who spent more on welfare had lower rates of imprisonment, meaning that when the poor were supported and protected, crime rates were lower.

Question 29

How could Downes and Hansen's study be used to criticise Merton and functionalist views of crime?

Answer 29

While it could support Merton's view that crime is a response to a strain to anomie, Functionalists tend to reject the value of welfare spending, instead believing in a meritocratic society in which people can choose the social position they put themselves in through the level of hard work they commit to and skill they possess. This means that although Functionalist theories tend to blame the poor for crime rates, they rarely support an alternative that would limit crime by these groups as they see the crime they commit as functional and necessary for the prompting of social change.

Question 30

What are some further criticisms of Merton's theory?

Answer 30

1. Merton does not explain where the 'goals' and 'means' he refers to have originated from or what specific wider purpose they serve when an individual is successful. 2. He also fails to explain why an individual chooses one particular deviant response to anomie over another, meaning that it is not clear why some people who face blocked opportunities choose to commit crime whilst most others conform. 3. Merton's theory also focuses almost exclusively on working-class crime, and therefore does not explain why those with wealth and access to legitimate means still commit crime despite not feeling the strain.

Question 31

How would Marxists critique Merton's theory of crime and deviance?

Answer 31

Marxists argue that the trend of focusing on working-class crime, which is seen throughout functionalist theories of crime, means that functionalists ignore white-collar and corporate crimes and rely on the definitions of crime created by the ruling class which criminalise the activities of the working-class and protect the deviance of the ruling-class. Thus, Marxists would argue that crime is evenly distributed across society but unequally represented in the crime statistics, causing the 'dark-figure' of crime, and functionalists are wrong to assume that the majority of crime and deviance is limited to the working-class.

Question 32

Who criticised Merton from within the functionalist tradition?

Answer 32

Albert Cohen, pointing out that Merton fails to address juvenile delinquency.

Question 33

What did Cohen argue after studying groups of working-class, deviant boys?

Answer 33

Deviance isn't an individual phenomenon, but rather collective.

Question 34

What did Cohen argue about the goals set by young people?

Answer 34

That they varied from those set by wider society, particularly those set by young working-class males. Young people set social goals of gaining status rather than material wealth, which can be achieved through educational performance and the acquisition of qualifications.

Question 35

For what reasons did Cohen say some young people are unable to achieve the goals of status?

Answer 35

Due to a lack of skills provided to them by their parents, or because they have been placed in the lowest achievement streams in their school sets.

Question 36

What term did Cohen give to the form of anomie experienced by young people unable to achieve status?

Answer 36

Status frustration

Question 37

Explain status frustration

Answer 37

Young people become frustrated by their teachers' treatment of them and the middle-class culture that leaves them unable to succeed and stuck at the bottom of the 'status hierarchy.'

Question 38

How did Cohen argue young working-class males in particular respond to status frustration?

Answer 38

Young working-class males turn to gang culture and criminal subcultures, as turning to these groups allows them to access and achieve alternative forms of status, as well as providing an opportunity to retaliate against the groups that had branded them as 'failures.'

Question 39

What are the three types of deviant subcultures that Cloward and Ohlin identified as being where young working-class males turn towards as a response to status frustration?

Answer 39

1. Criminal subcultures; these encourage mainly utilitarian crimes, and act as a legitimate alternative to the job market as a means of achieving financial success and an alternative form of social status and respect which is backed-up by intimidation. 2. Conflict subcultures; these subcultures tend to arise in areas with a high turnover of residents, resulting in high levels of social disorganisation without an established criminal network, therefore meaning it offers a less feasible alternative to the job market. They tend to result in loosely organised gangs, in which male frustrations are released through violence. 3. Retreatist subcultures; these emerge amongst lower-class youth who have failed to succeed in both mainstream society and criminal and gang-based subcultures. The response of these groups is to retreat into drug addiction and alcoholism, paid for through petty theft, drug dealing, shoplifting and prostitution.

Question 40

How did Matza criticise other subcultural approaches to crime and deviance?

Answer 40

By arguing that they overestimate juvenile delinquency by assuming that membership of delinquent subcultures is permanent.

Question 41

Matza argues that individuals instead drift in and out of delinquency, employing what to justify their actions, for example saying that their victims 'deserved it' or arguing they were committing the crime to protect themselves?

Answer 41

Techniques of neutralisation

Question 42

What would Matza's suggestion that crime and deviance is temporary and episodic suggest about other subcultural theories?

Answer 42

That subcultural theories such as Cohen and Cloward and Ohlin's only offer a partial view of crime and deviance.

Question 43

What is a positive of Matza's approach to subcultural explanations of crime and deviance?

Answer 43

It is more clear in addressing the criticisms that point out how some cultural theories ignore the fact that not everyone who fails in achieving mainstream goals of success joins an illegitimate career structure of crime and gang-culture.

Question 44

How would Feminists criticise subcultural explanations of crime and deviance?

Answer 44

By pointing out that they tend to focus on young working-class males, when Feminists would argue that as a result of patriarchal control and oppression, working-class girls and women face more social barriers that would turn to crime and deviance.

Question 45

In contrast with these other subcultural theorists who explain deviant subcultures as a response to the failure to achieve mainstream goals; Miller argues that...

Answer 45

The lower-class has its own independent subculture which exists entirely separate from mainstream culture.

Question 46

What does Miller believe about the socialisation of working-class youths and deviancy?

Answer 46

He believes that working-class youths never accept mainstream norms and values in the first place, and are instead socialised into a set of lower-class values and goals, which he calls 'focal concerns'. Although Miller agrees that deviance is widespread in the lower class, he argues that it arises out of an attempt to meet their own 'focal concerns' rather than the mainstream goals of wider society.

Question 47

What are the six focal concerns that Miller argued are likely to lead working-class males to delinquency?

Answer 47

1. Smartness 2. Toughness 3. Autonomy 4. Fate 5. Excitement 6. Trouble

Question 48

According to Miller, a desire to fulfil focal concerns pushes young working-class males towards crime as a direct result of...

Answer 48

The implicit values of their subculture.

Question 49

Which theorists support much of Functionalist analysis of crime and deviance?

Answer 49

The New Right

Question 50

On what aspect of deviance do the New Right agree with Functionalists?

Answer 50

That deviance is the result of individuals pulling away from the common value consensus which preserves social order.

Question 51

What did Marsland argue about increased welfare spending?

Answer 51

That it has encouraged an 'abdication from self-reliance and social responsibility' amongst the lower-class.

Question 52

What did Murray argue about crime and deviance?

Answer 52

Murray argues that an underclass is steadily growing, with generations of young boys growing up without male role models and examples of permanent paid employment and legitimate career structures, leading to a criminal underclass of jobless, welfare-dependent, dysfunctional people. He felt this leads to a cycle of deviancy in the lower-classes, with a culture of dependency on the state justifying the disengagement of groups of people from mainstream goals of success through legitimate means, and leading to an increase of working-class convictions and arrests in crime statistics.

Question 53

Why are theories of the New Right widely critiqued, despite influencing many social policies in the contemporary UK?

Answer 53

1. They blame individuals for the choices they have made rather than the flaws of an unequal society and limiting system. 2. Furthermore, it could be argued that it is in fact reductions in welfare benefits that create increases in crime and deviance rather than the increased provision of welfare services and benefits.