Functionalist theory on crime and deviance
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restrictedrebel on November 13, 2011
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32 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 functionalist main theory | believe social order benefits everyone, crime is bad as the weak suffer, social progress would be limited by disorder and all would suffer, thus crime must be limited, some crime can be positive |
| ways crime can be positive | can act a warning device, can help society progress, provides employment, acts as a safety valve, helps social cohesion, reinforces the boundaries of society |
| Durkheim | believed in consensus and the need for social order, basis of society was a set of shared values which guide our actions called the collective conscience, tells us what is acceptable and what is not, re-affirming boundries, anomie |
| re-affirming boundries | changing values, social cohesion, safety valve |
| changing values | when the majority of the public disagrees with police and court action it can cause a change in values |
| social cohesion | when particularly horrific crimes have been committed |
| safety valve | releasing the stress of the inequalities in society |
| anomie (sense of nomlessness) | according to Durkheim in periods of great social change or stress people start to look after their own selfish needs, where a collapse of the collective conscience has occurred an anomie exists |
| Merton | crime is caused by a conflict between cultural goals and the means, western societies goal is material wealth, to reach this goal societies have a set of norms, values and institutions (the means), ideally everyone will have access to the means that will be able to deliver the goals but this is not the case |
| why people don't have access to the means | not everyone has equal access to institutions, not everyone is born into the same social background, such inequality creates tension (a strain) in the social system |
| responses to the strain | conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, rebellion |
| conformity | accepting both the goals and the means |
| innovation | accepting the goals but rejecting the means |
| ritualism | rejecting the goals but accepting the means |
| retreatism | rejecting both the goals and the means |
| rebellion | replacing both the cultural goals and the means |
| functionalist subculture theory | Cohen, they resolve their status frustration by rejecting the success goals of mainstream culture, norms and values are based on a subversion of mainstream ones |
| Cohen | deviants develop a sense of anomie, they form a subculture of criminality with its own values, provides an explanation for crimes that provide no gain, delinquency is a collective response to status frustration, criminals develop status frustration, the dissatisfaction is caused by a lack of achievement and causes low self esteem |
| opportunity structures | Box, Cloward and Ohlin, there are 3 different structures you can enter |
| Box | not all vandals reject main stream values |
| Cloward and Ohlin | focused on how peoples opportunities to be deviant are also different, some have better opportunities to enter into a criminal career, working class commit crime because they have limited access to a legitimate opportunity structure |
| 3 structures of the opportunity structure | criminal, conflict, retreatist |
| criminal | these subcultures are established and organised criminal networks |
| conflict | these subcultures develop in areas of limited access to legitimate opportunity structures |
| retreatist | these subcultures develop in areas of limited access to legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structures |
| Criticisms of the functionalist theory | the idea of the criminal subculture is based on the gangs of Chicago in the 1920's and 30's, the idea of the retreatist is simplistic drug abuse and is common amongst all classes of people |
| Hirschi | reflected on what causes people not to deviate |
| reasons for not deviating | attachment, commitment, involvement, belief |
| attachment | the extent to which a person is attached to others |
| commitment | fear of law breaking |
| involvement | conventional activities would keep people too occupied |
| belief | a common value system within society whose norms are being violated and reinforced |
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