Functionalist, strain, and subcultural theories
- Created by: 11pyoung
- Created on: 29-12-17 15:30
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- Durkheim, Functionalism, Crime and Deviance
- Functionalist, Strain and Subcultural Theories
- Strain Theory
- Robert Merton
- All societies set their members certain goals and provide socially approved ways of achieving those goals
- In an unequal, class-based society, those in higher classes had more opportunity to succeed than others
- All societies set their members certain goals and provide socially approved ways of achieving those goals
- Aspects of society could become dysfunctional and needed to be changed to get society running smoothly again
- Crime and deviance are evidence of a poor fit between the socially accepted goals of society and the socially approved means of obtaining those goals
- Five types of behaviour identified
- Conformity
- The individual adheres to both goals and means, despite the limited likelihood of success
- Innovation
- The person accepts the goals of society but uses different ways to achieve those goals
- Ritualism
- A person immersed in a daily routine and regulations of their job but has lost sight of material success
- Retreatism
- Fails to achieve success and rejects both goals and means
- Rebellion
- Both socially sanctioned goals and means are rejected, and different ones substituted
- Conformity
- Evaluation
- Merton is too reductive in his stress on the existence of common goals within society
- He underestimates the amount of middle- and upper-class crime while over-estimating working-class crime
- Fails to explain crimes that do not produce material rewards
- Robert Merton
- Illegitimate Opportunity Structure
- There is a parallel opportunity structure to the legal one.
- For some subcultures in society, a regular illegal career was available, with recognized illegal means of obtaining society's goal
- Three possible adapations
- Criminal
- There is a thriving local,criminal subculture, with successful role models.
- Young offenders can work their way up the criminal ladder
- There is a thriving local,criminal subculture, with successful role models.
- Conflict
- No local criminal subculture to provide a career opportunity but territorial gangs exist which recruit or press-gang young people into their service
- Retreatist
- Individuals have no opportunity or ability to engage in wither of the other two subcultures or to achieve success in legitimate ways.
- Criminal
- Evaluation
- It is difficult to accept that such a distinction between the three adaptations exists in real life.
- No discussion about female deviance or crimes committed by higher social classes
- There is a parallel opportunity structure to the legal one.
- Status Frustration and Subculture
- 'Lower class' boys strive to emulate middle-class values and aspirations, but lack the means to attain success
- Their upbringing did not equip them to succeed at school, so they found it to get status from exam success
- Leads to status frustration
- Their upbringing did not equip them to succeed at school, so they found it to get status from exam success
- Lower-class children are much more likely to fail and so feel humiliated
- In an attempt to gain status, they 'invent' traditional middle-class values by behaving badly and engaging in a variety of antisocial behaviours
- They gain status from members of their peer group who have adopted similar values
- In an attempt to gain status, they 'invent' traditional middle-class values by behaving badly and engaging in a variety of antisocial behaviours
- Evaluation
- Influential in studies of delinquency, gangs and subcultures generally and offers a plausible explanation for some offending
- It may only apply to a minority of offenders who originally accepted mainstream values and then turn against them
- The opposition to mainstream values was more widespread in the working class because working-class culture does not correspond to the largely middle-class environment of schools
- Only attempts to explain male delinquency and says nothing about female delinquency
- Underplays the significance of relationships outside school, which may play a bigger role in the formation of subcultures
- 'Lower class' boys strive to emulate middle-class values and aspirations, but lack the means to attain success
- Critiques of Subcultural Theory
- Matza and Sykes
- There are no distinctive subcultural values
- All groups in society use a shared set of subterranean values
- Values that are at the margins of society
- All groups in society use a shared set of subterranean values
- Most people drift in and out of subcultures, conforming to mainstream values most of the time
- There are no distinctive subcultural values
- The seductions of crime
- Lyng
- Young males like taking risks and engaging in 'edgework'
- Lyng
- Neo-tribes
- Maffesoli
- States of mind and lifestyles that were very flexible, open and changing
- Deviant values are of less importance, than a stress on consumption
- Maffesoli
- Gangs and subcultures
- Peer groups
- Unorganised groups who hang around together in a particular place
- Any offending behaviour is incidental
- Unorganised groups who hang around together in a particular place
- Gangs
- Youth groups with a focus on offending and violence
- Organised criminal groups
- Heavily involved in serious crime
- Peer groups
- Matza and Sykes
- Strain Theory
- Society shares a core set of values
- Collective consciousness
- The more the behaviour differs from the core values, the more deviant it is
- Two sides of crime and deviance affecting society
- Positive crime
- Helps society change and remain dynamic
- Negative crime
- Too much crime; leading to social disruption
- Positive crime
- Positive aspects of crime: Social Cohesion
- Limited amounts of crime is necessary for any society
- Crime plays a role in clarifying boundaries between what is and isn't acceptable
- Reaffirming the Boundaries
- Publicity in the news reaffirms the existing values of society
- Changing Values
- Individuals deliberately setting out to change outdated laws
- Social Cohesion
- The drawing together of the entire community after a horrific crime
- Reaffirming the Boundaries
- Kingsley Davies
- Crime is useful as a safety valve
- Albert Cohen
- Crime can boost employment and the economy by creating jobs
- The negative aspects of crime: anomie and egoism
- Excessive Crime could be the result of anomie and egoism
- Anomie occurs when there are periods of great social change or stress, and the collective conscience becomes unclear
- Egoism occurs when the collective conscience becomes too weak to retrain the selfish desires of individuals
- These can be countered by strengthening the collective conscience
- Excessive Crime could be the result of anomie and egoism
- Evaluation
- Durkheim was the first to suggest some level of crime is normal in society
- Durkheim had the Sociological insight to see that crime was linked to the values of particular societies and these values could change
- Durkheim paid too little attention to how those in power could have undue influence on what acts were seen as criminal
- Durkheim exaggerated the extent to which there is a collective conscience in society
- Durkheim was vague in identifying which crimes are beneficial to society
- Functionalist, Strain and Subcultural Theories
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