Topic 1: Functionalist, strain and subcultural theories

Question 1

Davis

Answer 1

Prostitution acts as a safety valve for the release of men’s sexual frustrations without threatening the monogamous nuclear family.

Question 2

Polsky

Answer 2

Pornography safely channels a variety of sexual desires away from alternatives such as adultery which would pose a much greater threat to the family.

Question 3

Cohen

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Erikson

Answer 4

If crime and evidence perform positive social functions then perhaps society is actually organised so as to promote defiance. The true function of agencies of social chronology like the police may be to maintain a certain level of crime rather than to remove it. Societies manage and regulate deviance rather than eliminating it, for example demonstrations and carnival licence behaviour that in other contexts might be punished. The young may be given leeway to ‘sow their wild oats’ to offer a way of coping with the strains of transition from childhood to adulthood.

Question 5

Merton

Answer 5

Deviance is a result of strain between what culture encourages individuals to achieve and what society’s structure allows them to achieve legitimately e.g. the American Dream tells people society is meritocratic but the disadvantaged are really denied opportunities to achieve legitimately creating a pressure to deviate or the stain to anomie.
Adaptations to strain:
Conformists- accept goals and strive to achieve them legitimately
Innovators- accept goal but use illegitimate means to achieve it
Ritualists- give up on goals but follow the rules for three own sake
Retreatists- reject the goals and the legitimate means and become dropouts
Rebellion- reject goals and means but replace them with new ones in a desire to bring about change to society

Question 6

Cohen (subcultural strain theory)

Answer 6

Status frustration- working class boys in the middle class school system face anomie and are left at the bottom of the official status hierarchy. They resolve their frustration by rejecting middle class values and forming delinquent subcultures with boys in the same situation. 
The subcultures values are characterised by spite and hostility for those outside of it. It inverts mainstream values and praises what society condemns. The subculture offers an alternative status hierarchy in which boys can achieve.

Question 7

Cloward and Ohlin

Answer 7

The key reason for differing reactions to strain is unequal a access to illegitimate opportunity structures as well as legitimate ones. There are therefore three types of deviant subculture:
Criminal subcultures- provide youths with an apprenticeship for a career in utilitarian crime. Arise in neighbourhoods where this is a longstanding stable criminal culture.
Conflict subcultures- arise is areas of high population turnover which results in high levels of social disorganisation preventing a criminal network from developing. Therefore the only illegitimate opportunities are within loosely organised gangs where violence provides a release for frustration at blocked opportunities and alternative status.
Retreatist subcultures- those who fail both legitimately and illegitimately may turn to a retreating subculture based on illegal drug use.

Question 8

Messner and Rosenfeld

Answer 8

The American Dream’s obsession with individual caucuses exerts pressure towards crime by encouraging an anomic cultural environment in which people are encouraged to adopt an anything goes mentality in pursuit of wealth. Economic goals are valued above all others, undermining other institutions. Therefore in societies based on a free market lacking adequate welfare provision high rates of crime are inevitable

Question 9

Durkheim

Answer 9

Crime is inevitable- an integral part of all healthy societies. There are two reasons why it is found in all societies:
Not everyone is effectively socialised into the shared norms and values.
In modern society there is a diversity of lifestyles and values. Groups develop their own distinctive norms and values which may be seen as deviant by mainstream culture
Modern society have a tendency towards anomie or nor lessens meaning the rules governing behaviour becoming less clear cut. This is because the collective conscious weakness as individuals become more different from each other

Crime fulfils two important positive functions:
Boundary maintenance- unites members in condemnation of the wrongdoer reinforcing commitment to shared norms and values e.g. Courtroom rituals
Adaptation and change- there must be scope for individuals not to be stifled by the weight of social control and challenge norms which will initially be seen as deviance but in the long one may give rise to a new culture and morality. If these new ideas were suppressed society may stagnate and be unable to make necessary adaptive changes.
Neither a low or high rate or crime is desirable as these show some malfunctioning: too much threatens to tear the bonds of society apart, two little means that society is repressing and controlling its members too much, stifling individual freedom and preventing change