Functionalism and the role of crime

Question 1

What are the 2 roles of crime that Durkheim said crime has in society ?

Answer 1

Boundary maintenance
Adaptation and change

Question 2

What does Durkheim mean by boundary maintenance ?

Answer 2

Crime produces a reaction from society and through punishment people stick to the communities shared norms and values as they don’t want to face the same consequences as the individual

Question 3

What does Durkheim mean by Adaptation and change?

Answer 3

All acts of change start with an act of deviance as if people with a minority view didn’t go against society’s shared norms and values then new beliefs would never be brought in.

Question 4

What are the 4 functions of crime and who talks about them?

Answer 4

Durkheim -
Boundary Maintenance
Adaptation and change

Cohen -
Warning device

Davis & Polsky -
Safety valve

Question 5

What crime does Davis say is beneficial to society?

Answer 5

Prostitution

Question 6

What crime does Polsky say is beneficial to society ?

Answer 6

Pornography

Question 7

What does Cohen mean when he says the function of crime is as a warning device?

Answer 7

Crime warns society that there is something wrong or unjust within it and it needs to change. For example, Rioting

Question 8

What does Davis mean when he says that the function of crime is as a safety Valve

Answer 8

Crime relieves tensions of society which prevents bigger, more severe crimes from occurring

Question 9

What are the 2 mechanisms that functionalists say enable us to achieve social solidarity ?

Answer 9

Socialisation - instills a shared culture within its members

Social Control - Rewarded for conforming and punished for deviance

Question 10

What is Durkheim’s quote on crime?

Answer 10

” crime is normal… an integral part of healthy societies “

Question 11

What does Kai Erickson say about crime?

Answer 11

If crime and deviance performs a positive function in society then Maybe society is organised in a way to promote deviance. For example, the role of police is to sustain a certain number of crimes rather then to eradicate it

Question 12

What is AO3 to the functionalist view of crime?

Answer 12

• Durkheim says that society needs a certain amount of crime however doesn’t specify the ideal amount
• Functionalists ignore the consequences that crime has on the minority, being the victims, and only focuses on the majority, society.
• Crime doesn’t always promote solidarity and may have the opposite effect as the victims may begin to isolate themselves from others

Question 13

Why does Merton say people commit crime?

Answer 13

The strain theory -
When people can’t achieve their goals in a legitimate way they face strain which leads to anomie meaning they turn to illegitimate ways to achieve them as everyone wants to achieve the American dream

Question 14

Describe Merton’s Strain theory

Answer 14

People try to achieve the American dream (the cultural goal of having money success) so people experience strain. This strain leads to anomie (breakdown of norms and values) which causes deviant acts as the individuals try to achieve their goes through illegitimate ways

Question 15

What are the 5 types of adaptations to strain according to Merton ?

Answer 15

Conformity - Individuals accept culturally approved goals and strive to achieve them legitimately

Innovation - Individuals accept goal of money success but ‘new’ illegitimate ways of achieving it

Ritualism - Give up on trying to achieve goals but have internalised the legitimate means and so follow the rules

Retreatism - Reject both the goals and legitimate ways of achieving them so become dropouts .

Rebellion - Reject society’s goals and means but replace them with new ones ignorer to bring about revolutionary change and create a new society

Question 16

What are strengths of Merton’s strain theory ?

Answer 16

• Shows how both normal and deviant behaviour can arise from the same mainstream goal
• He explains the patterns shown in official statistics - lower class crime rates are higher as they have least opportunities to obtain wealth legitimately

Question 17

What are weaknesses of Merton’s Strain Theory ?

Answer 17

• Deterministic - working class experience the strain but not all deviate.
• He assumes there’s a value consensus that everyone strives for money success when this isn’t true

Question 18

What did Albert Cohen say is the reason people deviate?

Answer 18

Status frustration -
Delinquent acts are promoted by status frustration as people want to gain status through an alternative set of values which is often crime.
He focuses on working class boys and says they face anomie in the middle class dominated schools so they create an alternative status hierarchy

Question 19

Why does Cohen criticise Merton?

Answer 19

• Merton sees deviance as an individual response to strain and ignores that most deviant acts are committed by groups
• Merton only focuses on utilitarian crime committed for material gain and ignores non-utilitarian crime (assault, vandalism etc) where there’s no economic motivation

Question 20

What is a weakness of Cohen’s status frustration theory ?

Answer 20

He assumes working class boys shared in the middle class success goals ignoring the possibility that they never shared these goals and never saw themselves as failures

Question 21

What did Cloward and Ohlin say?

Answer 21

Deviance arises due to unequal access to the illegitimate opportunity structures. They identified 3 different types of deviant subcultures based on their evidence of existence of legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structures:

• Criminal subcultures - apprenticeship in crime
• Conflict subcultures - loosely organised gangs who take part in violence
• Retreatist subcultures - people who fail to become a professional criminal turn to these subcultures based on illegal drug use

Question 22

Who criticises Cohen and Cloward and Ohlin for being reactive theories?

Answer 22

Lower class has its own independent subculture and crime is a result of the alternative guidelines of the subculture. Miller said that working class boys have 6 focal concerns (WC goals) :

• Trouble
• Toughness
• Smartness
• Excitement
• Fate
• Autonomy - don’t let people push you around

Question 23

Who does south criticise and what does he say?

Answer 23

South says that Cloward and Ohlin draw the boundaries too sharply between the different types of subcultures. He looked at the drub trade and found that it’s often a mixture of disorganised crime (conflict subculture) and professional style crime (criminal subculture). This means crime often crosses a number of different subcultures rather than fitting into one.

Question 24

How does Matza explain crime?

Answer 24

For a period of time youths end up in ‘no mans land’ and results in them feeling the lack control over their lives and seek to gain some control over their destiny - this is called DRIFT
We then drift out of crime when a decent opportunity presents itself

Question 25

What does Messner and Rosenfeld say?

Answer 25

Institutional Anomie Theory -
In America and the UK economic goals are valued above anything else which encourages an anomic cultural environment within institutions as economic rewards are valued above all others .

Societies that are based on free-market capitalism and lack adequate welfare provisions will inevitably have higher crime rates