Functionalist, Strain and Subcultural Theories Flashcards
Durkheim functionalist theory
How do functionalist see society?
Society is based on value consensus where members of a society share a common culture which is a set of shared norms, values, beliefs, and goals.
How is social solidarity maintained and achieved?
Socialisation which instill shared culture into members and social control, including rewards and sanctions and punishments.
Why do functionalist see crime as inevitable in society?
Every known society has some level of crime and deviance, Durkheim crime is normal and an integral part of all healthy societies.
Why is crime and deviance found in all societies?
2 reasons
Not everyone is equally effectively socialised into the shed norms and values so some individuals will be pray deviate
There is a diversity of liars and values where different groups develop their own subcultures and norms and values which may be seen as deviant.
What is anomie
when governing behaviour becomes weaker unless clear because modern societies have a complex specialised division of labour which leads to individuals becoming increasingly different from one another which weakens shared culture.
What are positive functions of crime according to functionalists?
Boundary maintenance
Adoption and change
What is boundary maintenance
Crime produces a reaction from society uniting its members in condemning the wrong and re-reporting their commitment to share norms.
How does Durkheim explain the function of punishment?
Boundary maintenance
This is not to make the wrong do a suffer or no way nor is it to remove crime from society. It is to reaffirm society shared rules and reinforce social solidarity.
How is boundary maintenance used in society?
through the rituals of the courtroom which dramatised wrongdoing and publicly shamed and stigmatises the offender. This reaffirms the values of the law abiding majority and discourages others from rule breaking.
What is Adaption and change
Who change starts with an act of deviance. individuals with new ideas values and ways of living must not be completely stopped by social control and there must be scope for them to challenge and change existing norms and values.
How much new ideas and values lead to deviance?
Their values may give rise to a new culture and morality and if those of new ideas are suppressed society will stagnate and be unable to make a necessary adaptive changes.
Durkheim and the desirable amount of crime
Too much crime threatens to tear the bonds of society apart and two little means that society is oppressing and controlling its members too much stifling individual freedom and preventing change.
Other functions of crime in society
Kingsley Davis and crime as a safety valve
Davis argues that prostitution acts as a safety valve for the release of men’s section frustrations without frightening the monogamous nuclear family.
Other functions of crime
Albert Cohen and crime as a warning sign
Cohen identifies that crime is a warning that an institution is not functioning properly. High rates of Truancy means that they’re are problems with the education system and that policy makers need to make appropriate changes.
Other functions of crime
Kai Erickson and society organised to promote deviance
He argues that the function of agencies of social control such as the police may actually be to sustain a certain level of crime rather than to get rid of it completely.
How do societies manage and regulate deviance rather than eliminating it entirely?
Demonstrations, carnivals festivals and student rage weeks all licence misbehaviour that in other context might be punished. This is them way of coping with the strains of the transition from charted to adulthood.
Criticism of functionalist theory of crime and deviance
Don’t offer a way of knowing how much is the right amount of crime.
Ignores how crime and deviance may affect different groups or individuals within society.
Doesn’t always promote solidarity leading to people becoming more isolated.
Mertons strain theory
What do strain theorist argue about deviance?
They argue that people engage in behaviour when they are unable to achieve socially approved goals bi legitimate means.
Mertons explanation of deviance
Was explained by the combination of structural factors, Societies unequal opportunity structure
and cultural factors, the strong emphasis on success goals and the weaker emphasis on using legitimate means to achieve them.
The American dream
This ideology tells Americans that their society is meritocratic where anyone who makes effort can get ahead however many disadvantage groups are denied opportunities to achieve legitimately.
The result of disadvantaged groups being unable to achieve legitimately
produces frustration and this creates a pressure to resort to illegitimate means such as crime and deviance. The pressure to deviate is increased side effects that American culture puts more emphasis on achieving success at any price.
Deviant adaptions to strain
Theory to explain some of the patterns of deviance found in society. an individuals position in a social structure affects the way they adapt or respond to the strain.
5 types of adaptions depending on whether an individual accepts rejects or replaces approved cultural goals
Conformity
Innovation
Ritualism
Retreatism
Rebellion
What is conformity?
Individuals except the culturally approved goals and strive to achieve them legitimately
Middle-class individuals who have good opportunities to achieve
What is innovation?
Individuals except the goal of money success but use new illegitimate means such as theft or fraud to achieve it
What is a 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
What is retreat ism?
Individuals reject by the goals and the legitimate means and become dropouts. This includes outcasts vagrant tramps and drug addicts.
What is a rebellion?
Individuals reject the existing societies goals and means, but they replace them with new ones in a decided to bring about revolutionary change
Criticism of strain theory
It ignores the power of the ruling class to make an enforced laws in ways that criminalised the poor.
Assumes there is a valley consensus and ignores the possibility that many might not share this goal
Only account for crime for monetary gain and not crimes of violence
Subcultures stain theories of crime and deviance
What’s their perspective of deviance
They see deviance as the product of a delinquent subculture with different values from those of mainstream society subcultures provide an alternative opportunity structure for those who denied the chance to achieve by legitimate means
Status frustration and Albert Cohen
Deviance as a lower class phenomenon
Results from the inability of those in the lower classes to achieve mainstream success goals by legitimate means.
Albert Cohen and deviance among working class boys
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 leaving them at the bottom of the official status hierarchy.
The result of being unable to achieve status by legitimate means in education
Status frustration, 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.
