Functionalist, strain and Subcultural theories

Question 1

What did Durkheim say was the positive functions of crime?

Answer 1

Boundary maintenance and adaptation and change

Question 2

What is boundary maintenance?

Answer 2

crime unites society’s members in condemnation of the criminal. It sets out what is and is not acceptable to a certain society.

Question 3

What is adaptation and change?

Answer 3

All change starts with an act of deviance. Without this deviance, society would be stifled by control. Durkheim suggests a ‘society of saints’ would always find deviance in some acts.

Question 4

What are the other functions of crime and who proposed them?

Answer 4

• Kingsley Davis (1937)- prostitution acts as a safety valve for the monogamous family.
• Ned Polsky (1967)- pornography safely ‘channels’ a variety of sexual desires away from alternatives (e.g. adultery) - pose greater threat to the family.
• Albert Cohen- deviance highlights that an institution or an element of an institution may not be functioning properly (e.g. truancy in schools).

Question 5

Name some criticism of Durkheim’s ideas

Answer 5

• Durkheim says that crime and deviance is functional in society, yet he fails to include how much deviance is enough and how much is too much.
• States crime to be functional for society, yet it is not functional for all, it will never be functional for the victim, for example.
• Crime does not always promote solidarity- it may do the opposite and promote isolation (e.g. forcing women to stay in their home for fear of attack)

Question 6

What is Strain Theory and who created it?

Answer 6

• Strain theory explains deviance to be caused by individuals not being able to achieve societies socially approved goals by legitimate means.
• It was created by sociologist Robert K. Merton (1938).

Question 7

What were the two elements used by Merton to expand upon Durkheim’s concept of anomie?

Answer 7

• Structural factors- society’s unequal opportunity structure.
• Cultural factors- the strong emphasis on success goals and the weaker emphasis on using legitimate means to achieve them.

Question 8

What is the American Dream?

Answer 8

• The American Dream is the desire for money success pursued by the American public. It is expected that they pursue this goal by legitimate means (e.g. education, hard work).
• It tells the American public that the system is a meritocratic one, one where any one can achieve anything through hard work.

Question 9

Name the five deviant adaptations to strain

Answer 9

Conformity 
Innovation 
Ritualism 
Retreatism 
Rebellion

Question 10

Explain conformity

Answer 10

Individuals accept the culturally approved goals and strive to achieve them legitimately. This is most likely among middle-class individuals who have good opportunities to achieve, but Merton sees it as the typical response of most Americans.

Question 11

Explain Innovation

Answer 11

Individuals accept the goal of money success but use ‘new’, illegitimate means such as theft or fraud to achieve it. It is usually at the lower end of the class structure as they are under the greatest pressure to innovate.

Question 12

Explain ritualism

Answer 12

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. This is typical of lower-middle class office workers in dead-end, routine jobs.

Question 13

Explain retreatism

Answer 13

Individuals reject both the goals and the legitimate means and become dropouts.

Question 14

Explain rebellion

Answer 14

Individuals reject the existing society’s goals and means, but they replace them with now ones in a desire to bring about revolutionary change and create a new kind of society.

Question 15

Evaluate Merton

Answer 15

Positives:
- Shows how both normal and deviant behaviour can arise from the same mainstream goals.
- Explains patterns shown in official crime statistics in America
Negatives:
- Takes official crime statistics at face value- over-represent working-class crime also too deterministic
- Marxists- it ignores the power of the ruling class- make and enforce laws in ways that criminalise the poor but not the rich.
- Assumes there is a value consensus- ignores the possibility that not everybody strives for this goal.
- Only counts for utilitarian crime (monetary gain) not crimes of vandalism or violence, for example.
- Ignores group deviance and only focuses on individual crime.

Question 16

What are subcultural strain theories?

Answer 16

Theories that see deviance as the product of a delinquent subculture with different values from those of mainstream society.

Question 17

Who came up with the concept of status frustration and what does it entail?

Answer 17

Status frustration results from an individual or group’s inability to achieve socially accepted goals, thus not gaining status in the legitimately accepted means. The creator of this theory, Albert K. Cohen (1955) focused on working-class boys, stating they faced anomie in the middle-class dominated school system. Their lack of ability to achieve in this environment meant they experienced status frustration, thus turning to deviant subcultures where they could achieve status through deviance rather than knowledge.

Question 18

What is the alternative status hierarchy?

Answer 18

• ## According to Cohen, subcultures values are spite, malice, hostility and contempt for those outside it.