Functionalist Theories On Crime Flashcards
(21 cards)
Who are the key sociologists?
Durkheim, Merton, Cohen and Cloward/Ohlin
Why is crime more of a threat in modern society?
In pre industrialised society agents of social control like the family and religion were much more prominent. Whereas the complexity of modern life undermines these agents so people are much more likely to experience anomie.
Define anomie.
A sense of moral confusion that weakens ones commitment to shared values, encouraging crime and deviance.
List three way Durkheim believes that crime is functional for society
Acts of crime can provoke positive social change by highlighting flaws in the social structure or law.
Some acts of crime like terrorist attacks can provoke public outrage. This reinforces social solidarity against the offender.
Persuit, trial and punishment can reassure the public that the criminal justice system is functioning properly.
What was Mertons theory or crime called
The strain theory
Briefly describe the strain theory.
The ‘strain’ is in relationship between the culture and the structure of contemporary society. Success is defined as materialistic gain and those at the lower end of social structure cannot be materialistically successful a lot of the time. These leads to anomie being experienced and therefore crime being encouraged.
List the 5 responses to the initial sense of anomie felt.
Conformism, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion.
What is conformism?
Conformism is when one conforms to societal rules and despite not achieving materialistic success they make the most of what society offers them.
Who are the innovators?
Innovators are those who are very focused on achieving materialistic success but turn to alternative illegitimate means to achieve them
Who are those who respond using ritualism?
Those who have lost sight of materialistic goals and derive satisfaction from a fairly meaningless job.
Describe rebellion as a response.
Those who discard and replace the shared societal goals with more radical alternatives and may use violent methods to achieve this.
Briefly explain what Cohen believes about the working class youth?
Cohen believes that they have the same mainstream goals as the rest of society. However, due to various social and economic disadvantages they have little opportunity to achieve their goals by approved means.
According to Cohen, what do the working class youth experience?
Denial of Status which leads to status frustration.
What forms as a result of status frustration?
A delinquent subculture.
Briefly describe a delinquent subculture, include an example.
Delinquent subcultures are based on a deliberate reversal of accepted forms of behaviour as revenge to the unfair treatment the working class receive. For example, one may replace hard work with stealing.
Evaluate Cohen’s theory
It provides some evidence of non-utilitarian deviance.
It fails to acknowledge female delinquency and crime in wider society.
What three working class delinquent subcultures does cloward and ohlin identify?
Criminal subculture, conflict subculture and retreatist subculture
Describe criminal subculture.
Criminal subcultures arise in stable working class areas and are characterised by utilitarian crimes such as theft. They provide learning opportunities for younger criminals with an alternative to legitimate means of making money.
Describe conflict subcultures.
Conflict subcultures arise in working class areas with a lack of social cohesion and revolve around violent crimes such as mugging or gang warfare. Both illegal and approved means of achieving goals are blocked or limited.
Describe the retreatist subculture.
Those in this subculture have failed to succeed in legal society and all illegal subcultures. Therefore, they respond is to retreat into drug addiction and alcoholism paid for by petty thefts and prostitution.
Evaluate cloward and ohlins research.
Gives insights into working class delinquency under different social circumstances.
However, they exaggerate the differences in subcultures not acknowledging there is an overlap between them
