Theories of crime and deviance Flashcards
Functionalist theory of crime and deviance - Durkheim
Durkheim says that some crime and deviance is essential in maintaining social solidarity and collective consciousness and can be therefore beneficial and positive for society.
Boundary maintenance - increases social solidarity as become united against deviant
Adaptation - crime enables social change
Acts as a safety valve - allows society to release stress without social order collapsing
Acts as a warning device - Cohen suggests crime tells us when society is dysfunctional and something is going wrong
EVALUATION - Durkheim 4 positive functions
Highly influential
Universalistic approach
Why are some groups more deviant than others
Ignores structural inequality - powerful groups decide what is deviant and what is not so crime more functional for them
Crime can actually damage social solidarity
Neofunctionalism - Merton strain theory
Merton believed deviance would occur in society when its members are unable to meet its set goals or values. He says in the USA a common goal is the American dream which is achieved through hard work. Most conform to legitimate and acceptable means of achieving this but some cant achieve through legitimate means so they face a strain between societys goals and the socially acceptable means of achieving them.
Innovate - still have goal but reject legitimate ways of achieving (eg pimp or drug dealer)
Ritualism - give up on trying and are deviant because they no longer accept the goal of achieving it (eg not trying for promotion)
Retreatism - give up on the goal and means of achieving it so drop out of society (eg drug addict)
Rebellion - replace means and goals completely (eg terrorist)
EVALUATION of merton strain theory
explains different types of deviance
explains why individuals are motivated to commit different types of deviance
does not explain why majority dont turn to crime - Hirschi’s control theory takes the opposite view that we should look at why the majority of people do not commit a crime rather than why they do
Ignores structural inequality
Sub cultural theories - Cohen
Cohen says that deviance is a consequence of a groups position in society combined with the strain with societies norms and values, his explanation is a combination of structural and subcultural ideas.
Cohen suggests that wc boys want the same things out of life and want the same successes as members of mainstream culture. They cannot achieve due to position ie due to deprivation and this causes them status frustration in the bottom reaches of society. Cohen says they deal with this by rejecting mainstream norms and adopting new sets of norms and values that can gain them success and status eg in a delinquent subculture success is gained through high values placed on stealing, vandalism etc.
EVALUATION - Cohens sub cultural theory
STRENGTHS
- useful in explaining gang culture in the USA eg the bloods and the crips are black latino gangs and are clear subcultures with different norms and values
- explains non utilitarian crimes well
- led to development of supporting theories - Cloward and Ohlin agree and say there are 3 types of subculture - criminal, conflict and retreatist.
LIMITATIONS
- delinquents dont feel like failures - Box
- working class subculture does not exist? - Matza biggest critic
Sub cultural theory - Matza delinquency and drift
Matza was unhappy with aspects of sun cultural explanations of delinquency. He criticised Cohen’s theory and said delinquents are not a distinct subculture. This is because Matza says they share the same norms as members of mainstream society as they feel guilt and only do crimes occasionally.
Matza suggests young people have a mood of fatalism where they feel powerless and do not like that they are not in control of their lives which causes a state of drift as they need to restore their sense of control through a mood of humanism and some young people do this by expressing their subterranean values in a criminal way. Although they have the same norms they can be turned off through techniques of neutralisation, allowing them to commit criminal acts.
EVALUATION of Matza delinquency and drift
STRENGTHS
- accounts well for why some become deviant and others do not
- less deterministic
- theory is based on emperical evidence
LIMITATIONS
- research lacks validity
- misinterpreted interview responses
- outdated
Marxist theory of crime and deviance - Why break the law?
Gordon says capitalismis criminogenic which means the cause of crime is capitalism as capitalism itself encourages individual gain, competition and the importance of winning rather than the collective wellbeing. Therefore breaking the law is a small step if it will lead to personal gain. The proletariat may be experiencing poverty so it might be the only way they can survive by committing criminal acts also allows them to release stress from alienation and frustration. The bourgeoisie will be involved in white collar and corporate crime as a way of maximising profits.
Marxist theory of crime and deviance - Who makes the law?
As the ruling class are in power in society they have the rights to create laws that will benefit them in some way eg creating property laws to protect their property or businesses eg Graham suggested most amphetamine available on the streets is legally produced by drug companies and these same drug companies tried to block legislation aimed at restricting its production as it would affect their profits
Pearce says that law creation maintains false class consciousness for example things like health and safety just keep the working class healthy for exploitation but appears to help the proletariat.
Marxist theory of crime and deviance - Law Enforcement
Marxists would suggest that the way that the law is enforced benefits the bourgeoisie as they suggest law is enforced selectively, with a systematic bias in favour of those at the top. Eg crimes of the powerful go unpunished.
