functionalist views on crime Flashcards
Durkheim
- crime performs positive functions for society through boundary maintenance
- boundary maintenance= social reactions to criminal behaviour help to reaffirm the value consensus in society
- this leads to a collective agreement that the criminal and deviant behaviour is wrong and should not be repeated
- informal social control
Durkheim- adaptation and change (functional rebels)
deviance is a form of social change, when people break the norm, more will follow leading to the formation of a new norm
Durkheim/Davies safety valve
when someone commits crime, some of the tension is released in society, it is a small one to prevent greater ones
Evaluation of Durkheim
- difficult to define the ‘optimum amount’ of crime in society
- doesn’t explain HOW crime happens
- in contemporary society, deviance is not leading to social change as other insititutions have nullified movements like black lives matter and sensationalise them- maintaining the status quo
- func doesn’t look at crime and its effect on individuals
- some people don’t commit crime for a positive effect
- crime doesn’t always lead to solidarty, sometimes people can get too scared to go outside
- it wasn’t planned to bring about positive benefits- viewing it this way only explains the impact but not the whole and why
Merton
- GOALS: most people want housing, work, leisure which motivate us to try hard
- MEANS: the resoces at our disposal to achieve these goals
- the strain is felt when people don’t have the means to achieve their goals
- this causes frustration and tension, so people try to achieve their goal through deviant means
- commit crime -> anomie
The American Dream (Merton)
- american society is meritocratic
- in reality, it is one of the most unequal countries in the western world
- therefore, the strain between the cultural goal of money succes and the lack of legitimate means to obtain it = frustration = pressure to deviate and the strain to anomie
Merton’s 5 ways in which people can deviate (adaptations to strain/subcultures)
- conformists: people who have invested in the American dream, worked towards their education and are in employment
- ritualists: people who do not aspire to society’s goals but accept the means of achieving them, so they go to work and do the job but may not want career success
- innovators: people like criminals who support the goals of society but use criminal means of achievement
- retreatists: reject society’s goals and may be seen as dropouts and addicts
- rebels: create alternative goals to those perscribed by society, may seek a counterculture- terrorists or revolutionaries
Evaluation of Merton
+ deviance arises because of the social structure
-assumes there is a consensus around goals and means
-focuses on individual response, but what about the social patterns?
-too deterministic-assumption it applies equally
-outwardly successful people may be involved in criminal activity eg white collar crime
-contemporary relevance-postmodernism
-only applies to western capitalist society
Hirschi- control theory/ bonds of attachment
- crime= result of social institutions losing control over individuals
- weak institutions like certain family types, breakdown of communities+breakdown of trust in the government and police = link higher crime rates
- Hirschi: bonds of attachment- criminal activity occurs when an individual’s attachment to society is weakened
- according to his theory, one would predict the typical delinquent to be young, single, unemployed and probably male
- those who are married and in work are less likely to commit crime- involved in part of social institutions so less likely to go astray
Hirschi diagram- what are the 4 bonds?
conforming behaviour ->
- attachment: family, friends, community
- commitment: future, career, success, goals
- belief: honesty, morality, fairness, patriotism, responsibility
- involvement: school activities, sports teams, community organisations, religious groups, social clubs
if bonds are not strong, criminal behaviour is likely to be performed
what factors contribute to crime according to Hirschi?
- absentee parents- Murray + NR
- Farrington and West 1991 -> ‘parent deficit’ is most important factor because children need discipline and love, these are absent if parents are
- Truancy- less educated, lower attainment
- Unemployment- less economically stable
what factors contribute to crime according to Hirschi?
- absentee parents- Murray + NR
- Farrington and West 1991 -> ‘parent deficit’ is most important factor because children need discipline and love, these are absent if parents are
- Truancy- less educated, lower attainment
- Unemployment- less economically stable
Criticism of social control theory (Hirschi)
- some crimes are more likely to be committted by people with lots of connections!
- marxism- unfair to blame marginalised people, they are victims of an unfair society that doesn’t provide opportunities to work etc
- interactionism- m/c crimes are less likely to appear in the stats and in reality they are just as criminal
- by focusing on the crimes of the marginalised, the right wing elite dupe the public into thinking we need them to protect us from criminals, when in reality we need protecting from the elite
- victim blaming, we need to look at structural factors that lead to family breakdown
- parent deficit does not automatically lead to children being criminals- there are also pull factors.
legitimate opportunity structure vs illegitimate opportunity structure
legitimate: conformity and mainstream-> illegitimate structure, shadow economy
go to school-> truancy/school refusal so less skilled
develop peers/connections->deviant subc/gang
get qualifs->trained by gang (hotwire car, handle stolen goods, money laundering)
get a job -> role in the gang
get promotions-> climb up the hierarchy
become the boss!-> mafia boss
Cloward and Ohlin
- identified illegitimate opp structure+ legitimate, availible through gangs
- just because there is strain to get into the legitimate world, doesn’t mean it is easy to get into the illegitimate structure
- some people, live in places with an existing criminal subculture while others don’t.
- people’s responses to blocked opportunities differ
