functionalist - crime and deviance
- Created by: M_gan
- Created on: 27-02-19 09:28
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- functionalist view
- Durkheim
- crime is universal and inevitable
- crime can be functional
- boundary maintenance: shows right from wrong, reinforces commitment to shared norms and values
- adaption & change: all change starts with deviance, changes norms & values by challenging them eg Rosa Parks
- a warning that something needs to change
- evaluation
- :( - not clear about what's the right amount of crime: too subjective
- :( - doesn't think about victims view: insensitive
- :( - racism/ sexism of a 'healthy society'
- :( - not useful in explaining patterns of crime
- :) - generated further research eg strain theories
- caused by anomie (normlessness)
- Mertons strain theory
- everyone wants to meet the 'American Dream'
- may not be able to meet it because of discrimination or high unemployment
- deviant adaptions to strain
- conformity: accept goals and want to achieve them legitimately
- innovation: accept goals but achieve them illegitimately
- ritualism: give up on goals but still follow the rules
- retreatism: reject goals and ways to achieve them and become dropouts
- rebellion: replaces goals with new ones to make change eg Hippies
- evaluation
- :) - shows how crime can come from people having the same goals
- :) - explains crime patterns
- :( - takes official statistics at face value
- :( - only accounts for white collar crime
- :( - assumes people want money more than community
- everyone wants to meet the 'American Dream'
- Cohen status frustration
- people from lower classes have problems adjusting to low status given by society
- resolves this by rejecting mainstream middle class values and form/ join delinquent subcultures
- subcultures 'invert' mainstreams societies values, whatever society condemns the subculture praises
- alternative status hierarchy: created a illegitimate opportunity structure where they get status through delinquent actions
- evaluation
- :) - explains why groups commit crime
- :) - explains non utilitarian crime
- :( - assumes people are only in gangs for status
- :( - only applies to working class crime
- people from lower classes have problems adjusting to low status given by society
- Cloward and Ohlin
- illegitimate opportunity structure: not everyone has the same opportunity to become successful criminals as they need the opportunity to learn the trade
- three types of deviant subculture
- criminal subculture
- opportunity for a career in utilitarian crime
- appears in neighbourhoods with a stable crime culture
- provides those capable with opportunities on the criminal career ladder
- conflict subculture
- in highly populates areas
- social disorganisation and no stable professional crime netwrk
- loosely organised gangs - illegitimate opportunities
- violence releases frustration - they can gain status from gaining 'turf' from rival gangs eg postcode wars
- retreatist subculture
- in any neighbourhood
- not everyone's a successful criminal
- double failures: fail in both legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structures
- based on illegal drug use
- criminal subculture
- evaluation
- :) - provides an explanation for different types of group deviance - not just utilitarian crime
- :( - ignores the crimes of the wealthy/ powerful
- :( - deterministic - ignores the fact that most WC don't commit crime
- :( - assumes they shared the same norms and values to begin with
- :( - draws boundaries too sharply eg drug trade includes all three
- Durkheim
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