Crime And Deviance Flashcards
(15 cards)
FUNCTIONALISM AND THE VALUE CONSENSUS
The value consensus is the shared norms and values of society
that enable us to co-operate and live harmoniously alongside
each other. The value consensus binds us together as a society
giving us our norms and values that will tell us how to behave to
achieve our shared goals.
Functionalists argue that society has two key mechanisms that
enable us to achieve this solidarity:
1. SOCIALISATION – instils a shared culture into its
members. This ensures individuals internalise the same
norms and values.
What institutions from Yr 1 do this?
2. SOCIAL CONTROL – mechanisms include rewards for
conforming and punishment for deviance. These help to
ensure that individuals behave in the way society
expects.
Too much crime could be argued to be disruptive for society and could result in social breakdown. This
Durkheim- crimes positive functions
Too much crime could be argued to be disruptive for society and could result in social breakdown. This is
known as ANOMIE (DURKHEIM sees anomie as a cause of suicide). However DURKHEIM made the point that
every known society has some level of crime and he argued “crime is normal……an integral part of healthy
societies.” Functionalists offer two reasons why crime is an inevitable feature of society.
a) b) Not everyone is equally socialised into shared norms and values, therefore prone to deviance.
In complex modern societies there is diversity of lifestyles, culture and values. Different groups
develop their own subcultures with distinctive norms and values which maybe deviant to mainstream
culture.
According to DURKHEIM crime has 2 positive functions for society:
1. BOUNDARY MAINTENANCE – crime produces a reaction from society, uniting its members in
condemnation of the wrong doer and reinforces the commitment to shared norms and values.
DURKHEIM uses punishment to explain this; it is not about correcting or stopping behaviour but
instead the purpose is to reaffirm social solidarity and reinforce society’s shared rules.
This is done through the rituals of the courtroom which dramatise wrongdoing and publicly
shame and stigmatise the offender. The media play an important role in this ‘dramatisation of
evil’ (this will be revisited in the media topic).
2. ADAPTATION AND CHANGE – for DURKHEIM all acts of change start with an act of deviance.
Individuals with new ideas must not be stifled by the weight of social control, there must be
scope for them to challenge and change existing norms and values. E.g. the black civil rights
movement.
Durkheim argued that too much or too little crime was a problem for society, too much resulted in anomie
Cohen
also argued that deviance could be a key indicator that an institution is not functioning correctly.
For example high truancy rates might indicate that the education system is failing to meet the needs of its pupils
and so changes would have to be made in order to address the problems.
Durkheim criticism
Durkheim says society needs a certain amount of deviance to function but
offers no way of knowing how much is the right amount.
Functionalists explain the existence of crime e.g. to create social solidarity but do
not explain why it exists in the first place.
They focus on the function crimes serves for society as a whole but ignore how it may affect individuals
and groups. E.g. seeing a murderer punished creates social solidarity for society but it is not functional for
the victim. They miss this as they fail to ask functional for who?
Crime doesn’t always promote solidarity. It may have the opposite effect,
leading people to become more isolated e.g. women staying indoors for fear of
attack.
Meetings strain theory
WHAT IS STRAIN THEORY? – People engage in deviant behaviour when they are unable to achieve socially
approved goals by legitimate means. E.g. they become frustrated and resort to criminal means of getting
what they want, or lash out at others in anger, or find comfort for their failure in drug use.
MERTON developed strain theory (adapted from DURKHEIM’S concept of anomie) and his explanation
combines two elements:
STRUCTURAL FACTORS – society’s unequal opportunity structure
CULTURAL FACTORS – strong emphasis on success goals and the weaker emphasis on using legitimate
means to achieve them.
For MERTON deviance is the result of strain between two things:
THE GOALS THAT A CULTURE ENCOURAGES INDIVIDUALS TO ACHIEVE
WHAT THE INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE OF SOCIETY ALLOWS THEM TO ACHIEVE LEGITIMATELY.
Mertons deviant adaptions to strain
CONFORMITY: Individuals accept culturally approved goals and strive to achieve them
legitimately. Most likely within the middle classes who have good opportunities to achieve. This is the
typical response of most Americans.
2. INNOVATION: - Individuals accept goal of money success but use ‘new’ illegitimate means e.g.
theft/ fraud. Those at the lower end of the class structure are under the greatest pressure to
innovate.
3. RITUALISM: Give up on trying to achieve the goals but have internalised the legitimate means and
so follow the rules. Typically lower middle class office workers.
4. RETREATISM: Reject both goals and legitimate means and become dropouts. MERTON includes
vagrants, dropouts, tramps, drunkards and drug addicts.
5. REBELLION: Reject society’s goals and means but replace them with new ones in order to bring
about revolutionary change and create a new society. E.g. political radicals and counter-cultures e.g.
hippies.
Merton criticism ao3
He takes statistics at face value, these over represent
working class crime.
Merton sees crime as mainly a working class phenomenon.
It is also too deterministic – working class experience the
most strain yet all don’t deviate.
Marxists argue that it ignores the power of the ruling class to
make and enforce laws in ways that criminalise the poor but
not the rich.
It assumes there is value consensus and that everyone
strives for money success and ignores the fact that many
may not share that goal.
It only accounts for utilitarian (property) crime and ignores
non-utilitarian (violent) crime. It also does not explain state
crimes such as genocide.
It explains individual’s adaptation to strain to anomie
but ignores the role of group deviance
Su cultural drain theory def
See deviance as the product of a delinquent subculture with different values from those of mainstream
society. Subcultures provide an alternative opportunity structure for those who are denied chance to
achieve by legitimate means – mainly the working class.
Subcultural strain theories both criticise MERTON’S theory and build on it.
Cohen and status frustration
COHEN AND STATUS FRUSTRATION
Cohen AGREES with MERTON that deviance is largely a lower class phenomenon
resulting from their inability to achieve socially stressed goals. However COHEN
criticised (AO3) MERTON’S STRAIN THEORY on two grounds:
1) MERTON sees deviance as an individual response to strain ignoring that
a lot of deviance is committed by groups, especially amongst the young.
STATUS FRUSTRATION:
a sense of personal failure
and inadequacy.
AO3
COHEN provides an
explanation for group based
crime and deviance and also
NON-UTILITARIAN CRIME.
HOW IS THIS DIFFERENT
FROM MERTON?
MERTON only accounts for
crime with a profit motivation
A WEAKNESS OF COHEN IS
THAT HE ASSUMES THE W/C
BOYS SHARED IN THE M/C
SUCCESS GOALS IGNORING
THE POSSIBILITY THAT THEY
NEVER SHARED THESE GOALS
AND NEVER SAW
THEMSELVES AS FAILURES.
2) MERTON focuses on utilitarian crime committed for material gain and
ignores assault, vandalism (non-utilitarian) where there is no economic
motivation.
COHEN argued that most delinquent acts are prompted by STATUS
FRUSTRATION and are for the most part a means of gaining status through an
alternative set of values. According to Cohen those who are most likely to commit
deviant acts will be found in the lower streams at school, live in deprived areas
and have little chance of getting a decent job.
For COHEN school was the key influencing factor for delinquent BOYS because it
is the primary agency in terms of awarding and denying status. Working class
boys, according to COHEN, face anomie in the middle-class dominated school
environment. They suffer from cultural deprivation and lack the skills to achieve.
This inability to succeed in a middle class world leaves them at the bottom of the
official status hierarchy.
For lower stream boys the subculture creates an ALTERNATIVE STATUS
HIERARCHY:
Subcultures values are based on spite, malice, hostility and contempt for
those outside it
It inverts the values of mainstream society
What society values the delinquent subculture hate and vice/ versa
Offers the boys an alternative status hierarchy where they can achieve
Create their own illegitimate opportunity structures where they can win
ILLEGITIMATE OPPORTUNITY STRUCTURES
CLOWARD AND OHLIN
ILLEGITIMATE OPPORTUNITY STRUCTURES
CLOWARD AND OHLIN use MERTON as a starting point AGREEING that w/c
youths are denied legitimate opportunity structures to achieve money success
and that their deviance arises from their response to this situation.
Some may respond by turning to non-utilitarian crimes such as the subcultures
identified by COHEN who resort to violence and vandalism. Others will
innovate and turn to utilitarian crimes such as theft, others may resort to drug
use.
CLOWARD AND OHLIN make the point that whilst crime identified by the
above theorists arises due to a lack of LEGITIMATE OPPORTUNITIES some will
arise as a result of unequal access to the ILLEGITIMATE OPPORTUNITY
STRUCTURES. Failing at school does not necessarily mean you can become an
internationally renowned diamond thief…..
Different subcultures
CRIMINAL SUBCULTURE:
Provide youths with an apprenticeship for a career in utilitarian crime. Only happens in communities with
a long standing criminal culture. Young associate with adult criminals who select those with the right
aptitude and abilities and provide training and opportunities up the criminal careers ladder
2. CONFLICT SUBCULTURE:
Where there’s high population turnover and high levels of social disorganisation this prevents stable
professional criminal networks developing. Its absence means only illegitimate opportunities available are
within loosely organised gangs. Violence provides a release from frustration of blocked opportunity as
well as an alternative source of status (this is closest to COHEN’S theory).
3. RETREATIST SUBCULTURE:
In any neighbourhood not everyone who wants to become a professional criminal succeeds just as not
everyone gets a good job. These double failures turn to retreatist subcultures based on illegal drug use
Evil of ohlin and cloward
of subculture. This is because they explain deviant subcultures as forming as a reaction for the failure to achieve
mainstream goals.
The key criticism of this type of theory is that they are based on the assumption that everyone starts off by sharing
the mainstream goals. MILLER argues that evidence would suggest the lower class has its own INDEPENDENT
subculture separate from the mainstream that has its own norms and values.
Miller argued that instead of crime being the result of the alternative guidelines of a subculture, crime is simply
an extension of working class values and he identified SIX FOCAL CONCERNS of the working class males. These
males do not value mainstream success in the first place so their deviant behaviour does not arise out of
frustration but rather simply because they are seeking to achieve their own goals – FOCAL CONCERNS.
TROUBLE – life involves violence
TOUGHNES – manliness, demonstrated via drinking, womanising, sporting prowess
SMARTNESS – look good, act sharp
EXCITEMENT – look out for fun and enjoyment
FATE – life can’t be changed, make the best of it (fatalism/ immediate gratification SUGARMAN)
Drug trade
SOUTH argues that CLOWARD AND OHLIN draw the boundaries too sharply between the different
types of subcultures. He looked at the drug trade and found it is most often a mixture of
“disorganised” crime as in the CONFLICT SUBCULTURE alongside more professional “mafia” style
CRIMINAL SUBCULTURES. So rather than fitting neatly into a subculture as suggested by CLOWARD
AND OHLIN this type of crime will cross a number of the subcultures they identified.
MATZA AND THE CONCEPT OF DRIFT
Matza suggests that for a period of time youths end up in what he describes as a “no mans land” and
as a result they feel they lack control over their own lives and seek to gain some control over their
destiny.
This period of life Matza called DRIFT and it is at this time that our bonds to society are loosened and
so we are more likely as youths to engage in deviant or delinquent behaviour. An act of delinquency can
show that some control over destiny has been taken back and according to Matza we will drift out of
crime again when a decent opportunity presents itse
Institutional anomie
MESSNER AND ROSENFELD like MERTON use the
American Dream for the basis of their theory but their
view provides a more contemporary viewpoint.
They make the point that the obsession with
individual monetary success and the “winner takes all
mentality” pushes people towards crime.
In America (and the UK) economic goals are valued
above anything else. E.g. schools become geared to
prepare students for the labour market at the
expense of teaching values such as respect for
others.
This anything goes mentality in the pursuit of wealth
encourages an ANOMIC CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT
within institutions as economic rewards are valued
above all others
THE WORLDWIDE BANKING CRISIS IS A USEFUL
ILLUSTRATION OF THE POINT BEING MADE BY
MESSNER AND ROSENFELD.
In societies that are based on free-market capitalism and lack adequate welfare provision,
