Functionalist, Strain and Subcultural theories Flashcards
Which functionalist says “crime is normal…. an integral part of all healthy societies?”
Durkheim
Why does Durkheim believe this?
- Not everyone is equally effectively socialised into the same shared norms and values, so some individuals will be prone to deviate.
- In complex modern societies, there is a diversity of lifestyles and values - Different groups develop their own subcultures and norms and values. What the members of the subculture regard as normal, mainstream culture may see as deviant.
What does Durkheim mean when he says modern societies tend towards anomie?
Modern societies have a complex, specialised division of labour, which leads to individuals becoming increasingly different to one another. This weakens the shared culture or collective conscience and results in higher levels of deviance. E.g he sees anomie as a cause of suicide.
What are Durkheim’s four positive functions of crime?
Boundary maintenance, Integration, Warning sign and Safety valve.
What is boundary maintenance?
He believes this explains the function of punishment - to reaffirm society’s shared rules and reinforce solidarity. This may done through the use of the courtroom where wrongdoing is dramatised and the offender is publically shamed and stigmatised. The values of the law-abiding are majority are reaffirmed which discourages others from rule breaking.
What is innovation?
Durkheim believes all change starts with an act of deviance. Individuals with new ideas, values and ways of living must not be completely stifled by social control. There must be some scope for them to challenge and change existing norms and values which at first will appear as deviant. For example the suffragettes whose ideas are todays morality.
If those with new ideas are suppressed, society will stagnate and be unable to make necessary adaptive changes.
What are criticisms of Durkheim’s ideas?
He believes society requires a certain amount of deviance to function successfully, but he offers no way of knowing how much is the right amount.
What is Merton’s strain theory?
It argues that people engage in deviant behaviour when they are unable to achieve socially approved goals by legitimate means.
For Merton, deviance is the result of a strain between what two things?
The goals that a culture encourages individuals to achieve and what the structure of society allows them to achieve legitimately.
What example does he use?
The American dream.
What are Merton’s five deviant adaptations to strain?
- Conformity
- Innovation
- Ritualism
- Retreatism
- Rebellion
What is Conformity?
Individuals accept the culturally approved goals and strive to achieve them legitimately.
usually m/c individuals who have good opportunities to achieve.
What is Innovation?
Individuals accept the goal of money success but use “new” illegitimate means such as theft or fraud to achieve it.
Those at lower end of class structure are under greater pressure to innovate.
What is ritualism?
Individuals give up on trying to achieve the goals, but have internalised the legitimate means and so follow the rules for their own sake.
Typically w/c workers in dead-end routine jobs.
What is Retreatism?
Individuals reject both the goals and the legitimate means and become drop outs.
E.g drug addicts.
What is Rebellion?
Individuals reject existing society’s goals and replace them with new ones in a desire to bring about revolutionary change and create a new kind of society.
What is a subcultural strain theory?
See deviance as the product of a delinquent subculture with different values from those of mainstream society.
What does Cohen agree and disagree with Merton?
Agrees that deviance is largely a l/c phenomenon but criticises with him on two grounds:
1. Merton sees deviance as an individual response to strain, ignoring the fact that much deviance is committed in or by groups, especially among the young.
2. Merton focuses on utilitarian crime committed for material gain, such as theft or fraud. He largely ignores crimes such as assault and vandalism, which may have now economic motive.
What group of people does Cohen focus on?
Working-class boys
What does Merton say that Cloward and Ohlin agree with?
That w/c youths are denied legitimate opportunities to achieve “money success.”
What do Cloward and Ohlin disagree with?
That not everyone in this situation adapts to it by turning to “innovation” - utilitarian crimes e.g theft.
They attempt to explain why different subcultures occur instead. In their view, the key reason is not only unequal access to legitimate opportunities but unequal access to illegitimate opportunities.
What do they learn from looking at the ideas of the Chicago school?
That different neighbourhoods provide different illegitimate opportunities for young people to learn criminal skills and develop criminal careers.
What are the three subcultures that they identify?
- Criminal subcultures
- Conflict subcultures
- Retreatist subcultures
What are criminal subcultures?
They provide youths with an apprenticeship for a career in utilitarian crime. They arise only in neighbourhoods with stable crime culture with an established hierarchy of professional adult crime. This provides young people with opportunities for employment on the criminal career ladder.
What are conflict subcultures?
They arise in areas of high population turnover. This results in high levels of social disorganisation and prevents a stable professional criminal network developing.
This means that the only illegitimate opportunities available are within loosely organised gangs.
In these, violence provides a release for young men’s frustration at their blocked opportunities.
What are Retreatist subcultures?
In any neighbourhood, not everyone who aspires to be a professional criminal actually succeeds - just as in the legitimate opportunity structure. What becomes of these “double failures?” According to Cloward and Ohlin, many turn to a Retreatist subculture based on illegal drug use.
