Sociology-crime-functionalist, strain and subcultural theories

Question 1

How does functionalism see society?

Answer 1

As based on value consensus (all members share a common culture eg norms, values, beliefs and goals), which provides solidarity by binding everyone together. In order to achieve this society has two key mechanisms which are socialisation and social control

Question 2

How do functionalists see crime and deviance?

Answer 2

It seems they may see it as wholly negative as it is a threat to social order, and they do see too much crime as destabilising to society, however they see crime as inevitable and normal. Every society has some level of crime and deviance and so a crime free society is a contradiction in terms

Question 3

What did Durkheim say about crime in society?

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What are two reasons why crime and deviance are found in all societies?

Answer 4

Not everyone is equally and effectively socialised into the shared norms and values, so some people would be prone to deviate. Also, particularly in complex modern societies, there is diversity of lifestyles and values as different groups develop subcultures with distinctive norms and values, so what subcultures view as normal, mainstream society may view as deviant

Question 5

What does Durkheim say about modern societies?

Answer 5

They tend towards anomie or normlessness-rules governing behaviour become weaker and less clear cut as modern societies have complex, specialised division of labour, leading to individuals becoming increasingly different from one another, weakening the collective conscience, resulting in higher levels of deviance (Durkheim sees anomie as a cause of suicide)

Question 6

What does Durkheim see as the two important positive functions of crime?

Answer 6

Boundary maintenance and adaptation and change

Question 7

What is boundary maintenance?

Answer 7

Crime produces a reaction from society, uniting its members in condemnation of the wrongdoer and reinforcing their commitment to shared norms and values. Durkheim says the function of punishment is not to make the wrongdoer suffer or change, and it also isn’t to remove crime from society, the purpose is to reaffirm society’s shared values and reinforce social solidarity

Question 8

How is boundary maintenance achieved?

Answer 8

It can be done through rituals in the courtroom, which dramatise wrongdoing and publicly shame and stigmatise the offender. This reaffirms the values of the law abiding majority and discourages other from rule breaking

Question 9

What does Cohen say about boundary maintenance?

Answer 9

He examined the important role played by the media in this ‘dramatisation of evil’. In his view, media coverage of crime and deviance often creates ‘folk devils’

Question 10

What is adaptation and change?

Answer 10

Durkheim says all change starts with an act of deviance. Individuals with new ideas, values and ways of living must not be completely stifled by the weight of social control. There must be some scope for them to challenge and change existing norms and values, and in the first instance this will inevitably appear as deviance

Question 11

What is an example of how adaptation and change may work?

Answer 11

The authorities often persecute religious visionaries who espouse a new ‘message’ or value system. However in the long run their values may give rise to a new culture and morality. If those with new ideas are suppressed, society will stagnate and be unable to make necessary adaptive changes

Question 12

What does Durkheim say about crime levels in society?

Answer 12

Neither a very high or very low level of crime is desirable as too much crime threatens to tear the bonds of society apart, but too little means society is repressing and controlling its members too much, stifling individual freedom and preventing change

Question 13

What does Davis say is another function of crime?

Answer 13

Argues that prostitution acts as a safety valve for the release of men’s frustrations without threatening the monogamous nuclear family. (Polsky has a similar argument about alternatives to adultery)

Question 14

What does Cohen identify as another function of crime and deviance?

Answer 14

It is a warning that an institution is not functioning properly. For example, high rates of truancy may tell us that there are problems with the education system and that policy makers need to make appropriate changes to it

Question 15

What does Erikson identify as another function of crime?

Answer 15

He develops Durkheim’s idea of normality or inevitability of deviance. He argues that if deviance has positive social functions, then maybe society is actually organised to promote deviance, and the true function of agencies of social control eg police may actually be to sustain a certain level of crime rather than to prevent crime completely (further developed by labelling theory)

Question 16

What are examples of how societies manage and regulate deviance rather than seeking to eliminate it entirely?

Answer 16

Demonstrations, carnivals, festivals, sport and student weeks all license misbehaviour that in other contexts might be punished. Similarly, the young may be given leeway to misbehave while young before settling down. Functionalists may suggest this may be to offer a way of coping with the strains of transition from childhood to adulthood

Question 17

What is a summary of functionalist arguments on crime?

Answer 17

Functionalism is useful in showing the ways in which deviance is integral to society. It provides an important and interesting analysis that directs attention to ways in which deviance can have hidden functions for society (not everything that is bad, is bad for society)

Question 18

What are the criticisms for Durkheim’s functionalist theory of crime (4)?

Answer 18

Durkheim says society requires a certain amount of deviance to function successfully but doesn’t suggest how to know what that amount is. Functionalists explain the existence of crime in terms of supposed function but that doesn’t mean society creates crime in advance with intention to strengthen solidarity. Functionalism looks at what functions crime serves for society as a whole but ignores the affect on groups/individuals eg murderers being punished is not functional for the victim. Also crime doesn’t always promote solidarity and can have the opposite effect leading to isolation eg women staying inside in fear of violence

Question 19

What are strain theories?

Answer 19

They argue that people engage in deviant behaviour when they are unable to achieve socially approved goals by legitimate means eg they may become frustrated and resort to criminal means of getting what they want, or lash out at other in anger, or find comfort for their failure in drug use

Question 20

Who developed the first strain theory?

Answer 20

It was developed by Merton, who adapted Durkheim’s concept of anomie to explain deviance

Question 21

What is Merton’s strain theory?

Answer 21

It combines two elements: structural factors (society’s unequal opportunity structure) and cultural factors (the strong emphasis on success goals and weaker emphasis on using legitimate means to achieve them). Merton suggests deviance is the result of strain between the goals a culture encourages individuals to achieve and what the institutional structure of society allows them to achieve legitimately

Question 22

What is an example of Merton’s strain theory?

Answer 22

American culture which values ‘money success’-individual material wealth and the high status that goes with it . Americans are expected to achieve goals legitimately through self discipline, study, educational qualifications and hard work in a career

Question 23

What is the American Dream?

Answer 23

This ideology tells Americans that their society is a meritocratic one where anyone who makes the effort can get ahead-there are opportunities for all

Question 24

What is the reality for Americans?

Answer 24

It is different to the American Dream. Many disadvantaged groups are denied opportunities to achieve legitimately eg poverty/inadequate schools/discrimination and blocked opportunities. The strain between cultural money success goal and lack of legitimate opportunities produces frustration and a pressure to resort to illegitimate means such as crime and deviance. Merton calls this pressure to deviate, the strain to anomie

Question 25

How does Merton say that American culture further adds pressure to deviate?

Answer 25

The pressure is increased by the fact that American culture puts more emphasis on achieving success at any price than upon doing so by legitimate means. Winning the game is more important than playing by the rules

Question 26

What does Merton use strain theory to explain?

Answer 26

Some of the patterns of deviance found in society. He argues that an individual’s position in the social structure affects the way they adapt or respond to the strain to anomie. Logically, there are five different types of adaptation, depending on whether the individual accepts, rejects or replaces approved cultural goals and legitimate means of achieving them

Question 27

What are the deviant adaptations to strain?

Answer 27

Conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion

Question 28

What is conformity?

Answer 28

Individuals accept culturally approved gaols 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 29

What is innovation?

Answer 29

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

Question 30

What is ritualism?

Answer 30

Individuals give up on trying to achieve the goals, but have internalised the legitimate means so they follow the rules for their own sake. This is typical of lower-middle class office workers in dead-end, routine jobs

Question 31

What is retreatism?

Answer 31

Individuals reject both the goals and the legitimate means and become dropouts. Merton includes ‘psychotics, outcasts, vagrants, tramps, chronic drunkards and drug addicts’ as examples

Question 32

What is rebellion?

Answer 32

Individuals reject the existing society’s goals and means, but they replace them with new ones in a desire to bring about revolutionary change and create a new kind of society. Rebels include political radicals and counter-cultures such as hippies

Question 33

What is a summary of Merton’s strain theory?

Answer 33

It shows how both normal and deviant behaviour can arise from the same mainstream goals. Both conformists and innovators are pursuing money success-one legitimately, the other illegitimately

Question 34

What patterns shown in official crime statistics does Merton’s theory explain?

Answer 34

Most crime is property crime because American society values material wealth so highly. Also lower class crime rates are higher, because they have least opportunity to obtain wealth legitimately

Question 35

What are the five criticisms of Merton’s strain theory

Answer 35

1) Takes official crime stats at face value which over represent working class (makes theories too deterministic). 2) marxists argue it ignores power of ruling class to make/enforce laws in ways to criminalise poor but not rich. 3) assumes value consensus (shared money success goals). 4) Only accounts for utilitarian crime for monetary gain (ignoring violence, state crime such as genocide etc). 5) Explains how deviance results from individuals adapting to strain to anomie ignoring roles of group deviance such as delinquent subcultures

Question 36

What are subcultural strain theories?

Answer 36

They see deviance as the product of a delinquent subculture with different values from those of mainstream society. They see subcultures as providing an alternative opportunity structure for those who are denied he chance to achieve by legitimate means-mainly those in the working class. From this point of view, subcultures are a solution to a problem and functional for members, even if not for society. Subcultural strain theories criticise Merton’s theory but also build on it

Question 37

What are three subcultural strain theories?

Answer 37

Cohen: status frustration, Cloward and Ohlin: three subcultures, and recent theories

Question 38

How does Cohen support Merton’s strain theory?

Answer 38

Cohen agrees with Merton that deviance is largely a lower class phenomenon. It results from the inability of those in the lower classes to achieve mainstream success goals by legitimate means such as education achievement

Question 39

How does Cohen criticise Merton’s strain theory?

Answer 39

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. Also 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 no economic motive

Question 40

What does Cohen focus on in his theory?

Answer 40

Deviance among working-class boys. He argues that 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 in the middle class world leaves them at the bottom of the official status hierarchy

Question 41

What happens as a result of working class boys being placed at the bottom of the official status hierarchy>

Answer 41

As a result of being unable to achieve status by legitimate means, they suffer status frustration. They face a problem of adjustment to the low status they are given by mainstream society. In Cohen’s view, they resolve their frustration by rejecting mainstream middle class values and they turn instead to other boys in the same situation, forming or joining a delinquent subculture

Question 42

What does Cohen say about the subcultures that the working class boys form/join?

Answer 42

The subculture’s values are spite, malice, hostility and contempt for those outside it. The delinquent subculture inverts the values of mainstream society (what mainstream soceity condemns, the subculture praises and vice versa) eg mainstream society expects school attendance and respect for property whereas in the subculture status is gained from vandalising property and truanting

Question 43

How does Cohen suggest that these delinquent subcultures can be functional?

Answer 43

The subcultures function is that it offers the boys an alternative status hierarchy in which they can achieve. Having failed in the legitimate opportunity structure, the boys create their own illegitimate opportunity structure in which they can win status from their peers through their delinquent actions

Question 44

What is a strength of Cohen’s theory?

Answer 44

It offers an explanation of non-utilitarian deviance. Unlike Merton, whose concept of innovation only accounts for crime with a profit motive, Cohen’s ideas of status frustration, value inversion and alternative status hierarchy help to explain non-economic delinquency such as vandalism and truancy

Question 45

What is a weakness of Cohen’s theory?

Answer 45

Like Merton, Cohen assumes that working class boys start off sharing middle class success goals, only to reject these when they fail. He ignores the possibility that they didn’t share these goals in the first place and so never see themselves as failures

Question 46

How do Cloward and Ohlin relate to Merton’s strain theory?

Answer 46

They take Merton’s ideas as their starting point. They agree that working class youths are denied legitimate opportunities to achieve money success, and that their deviance stems from the way they respond to the situation

Question 47

What do Cloward and Ohlin note about subcultures?

Answer 47

Not everyone in this situation (strain) adapts to it by turning to ‘innovation’-utilitarian crimes such as theft. Different subcultures respond in different ways to the lack of legitimate opportunities. Cloward and Ohlin attempt to explain why different subcultural responses occur

Question 48

What do Cloward and Ohlin say the key reason why different subcultural responses occur is?

Answer 48

It is not only unequal access to the legitimate opportunity structure, as Merton and Cohen recognise, but unequal access to illegitimate opportunity structures

Question 49

What is an example of unequal access to illegitimate opportunity structures?

Answer 49

Not everyone who fails by legitimate means such as schooling then has an equal chance of becoming a successful safecracker. Just like the apprentice plumber, the would-be safecracker needs the opportunity y to learn their trade and the chance to practice it

Question 50

How did Cloward and Ohlin identify the different types of deviant subcultures?

Answer 50

Drawing on the ideas of the Chicago school, they argue that different neighbourhoods provide different illegitimate opportunities for young people to learn criminal skills and develop criminal careers

Question 51

What three types of deviant subcultures do Cloward and Ohlin identify?

Answer 51

Criminal subcultures, conflict subcultures and retreatist subcultures

Question 52

What are criminal subcultures?

Answer 52

They provide youths with an apprenticeship for a career in utilitarian crime. They arise only in neighbourhoods with a longstanding and stable criminal culture with an established hierarchy of professional adult crime. This allows the young to associate with adult criminals, who can select those with the right aptitudes and abilities and provide them with training and role models as well as opportunities for employment on the criminal career ladder

Question 53

What are conflict subcultures?

Answer 53

Arise in areas of high population turnover. Results in high levels of social disorganisation and presents a stable professional criminal network developing. Its absences means only illegitimate opportunities are available within loosely organised gangs. In these, violence provide a release for young men’s frustration at blocked opportunities, as well as an alternative source of status that can be earned by winning territory from rival gangs. This subculture is closest to that described by Cohen

Question 54

What are retreatist subcultures?

Answer 54

In any neighbourhood not everyone who aspires to be a professional criminal or gang leader actually succeeds-just as in the legitimate opportunity structure where not everyone gets a well paid job. According to Cloward and Ohlin, many of these double failures who fail in legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structures turn to retreatist subcultures based on illegal drug use

Question 55

What are the criticisms of Cloward and Ohlin?

Answer 55

They agree with Merton and Cohen that most crime is working class so ignore crimes of wealthy and over-predicts working class crime. Although they provide explanations for different types of working class deviance (unlike Cohen) they draw boundaries too sharply and South argues that drug trade is a mix of conflict and criminal subcultures

Question 56

Why have strain theories been referred to as reactive theories?

Answer 56

Because they explain subcultures as forming in reaction to the failure to achieve mainstream goals. They have been criticised for assuming that everyone starts off sharing the same mainstream success goal

Question 57

Unlike strain theories, what does Miller argue?

Answer 57

The lower class has its own independent subculture separate from mainstream culture, with its own values. This subculture does not value success int he first place, so its members are not frustrated by failure. Although he agrees deviance is widespread in the lower class, he argues that this arises out of an attempt to achieve their own goals, not mainstream ones

Question 58

What does Matza claim?

Answer 58

Most delinquents are not strongly committed to their subculture, as strain theory suggests, but merely drift in and out of delinquency

Question 59

How influential have strain theories been?

Answer 59

They have had a major influence both on later theories of crime and on government policy, eg Merton’s ideas play an important part in left realist explanations of crime. Similarly in the 1960s Ohlin was appointed to help develop crime policy in the USA under President Kennedy

Question 60

What have recent strain theories argued?

Answer 60

Young people may pursue a variety of foals other than money success. These include popularity with peers, autonomy from adults, or the desire of some young males to be treated like ‘real men’. Like earlier strain theorists, they argue that failure to achieve these goals may result in delinquency. They also argue that middle class juveniles too may have problems achieving such goals, thus offering an explanation for middle class delinquency

Question 61

What is an example of a recent strain theory?

Answer 61

Institutional anomie theory

Question 62

What is institutional anomie theory?

Answer 62

Like Merton’s theory, Messner and Rosenfeld’s institutional anomie theory focuses on the American Dream. They argue that its obsession with money success and its ‘winner take all’ mentality, exert pressure towards crime by encouraging an anomie cultural environment in which people are encouraged to adopt an ‘anything goes’ mentality in pursuit of wealth

Question 63

What do Messner and Rosenfeld conclude?

Answer 63

In America, economic goals are valued above all, undermining other institutions eg schools become geard to prepare pupils for the labout market at the expense of inculcating values such as respect for others. In conclusion, societies based on free market capitalism that also lack adequate welfare provision (USA)-high crime rates are inevitable

Question 64

How do Downes and Hanson support institutional anomie theory?

Answer 64

They offer evidence for it. In a survey of crime rates and welfare spending in 18 countries they found societies that spent more on welfare had lower rates of imprisonment, backing up Messner and Rosenfeld’s claim that societies that protect the poor from the worst excesses of the free market have less crime

Question 65

Similar to Downes and Hanson, How does Salvesberg support institutional anomie theory?

Answer 65

He applied strain theory to post-communist societies in Eastern Europe, which saw a rapid rise in crime after the fall of communism in 1989. He attributes this rise to communism’s collective values being replaced by new western capitalist goals of individuals money success