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Sociology - Crime and Deviance > SOC - Functionalism & Crime > Flashcards

SOC - Functionalism & Crime Flashcards

1
Q

Functionalism

A
  • society is a stable system based on shared values.
  • Crime and deviance disrupts this stability. Nevertheless, functionalists recognise that crime is both inevitable functional for society.
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2
Q

Key theories linked to functionalism

A
  • Anomie and the functions of crime
  • Strain Theory
  • Subcultural Theory
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3
Q

Durkheim

A
  • laws reflect the shared values of society. (Value consensus)
  • Anomie
  • Boundary Maintenance
  • Adaption and change
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4
Q

Anomie

A

State of normlessness
- as societies become so large, industrialised and urbanised… there was a risk that individuals could lose sight of the values that unite them. major cause of suicide
EG London Riots

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5
Q

Durkheim’s Overview of crime as inevitable

A
  • Not everyone is equally effectively socialised into shared norms and values, so some individuals will be prone to deviate.
  • Different subcultures develop their own norms and values. What is normal to them may be deviant to the mainstream society.
  • In a society of saints, the slightest slip would be regarded as highly deviant.
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6
Q

Boundary Maintenance ( functional )

A
  • Crime produces a reaction from society.

- The wrongdoer is stigmatised, reaffirming what is right and wrong to the test of society.

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7
Q

Adaptation and Change ( functional)

A

-Crime sends a message that people’s values no longer align with the law.
-This way the law can be adapted to reflect societies changing values.
EG gay marriage

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8
Q

Durkheim Evaluation

A
  • Feminists argue how domestic violence and crimes against women are functional
  • Fails to ask ‘Functional for whom’. ignores victims (Left Realism)
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9
Q

Robert Merton

A

Strain Theory

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10
Q

Strain Theory

A

In western societies, there is much emphasis placed on the value of material wealth. However, the gap between the cultural goals and the institutionalized means of achieving them puts strain on individuals.

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11
Q

How do individuals respond to the strain of western society?

A
  • Conformity
  • Innovation
  • Ritualism
  • Retreatism
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12
Q

Conformity

A
  • conforming to both the same goals and the conventional/legal means of achieving them. why stability and continuity of a society is maintained
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13
Q

Innovation

A

when people still value the cultural goals but reject the institutionalized means of achieving them. Thus, individuals are free to obtain the goals by the most efficient means necessary, which can often be crime (e.g., stealing, prostitution, drug dealing)

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14
Q

Retreatism

A

Occurs when people reject both the cultural goals and the institutionalized means. Can include the activities of psychotics, psychoneurotics, drug addicts, and alcoholics

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15
Q

Merton Evaluation

A
  • takes official statistics at face value. For others, they are nothing more than a social construction (Cicourel).
  • Can only account for utilitarian crimes for monetary gain. It cannot explain crimes such as violence, vandalism or state crimes such as torture, genocide etc.
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16
Q

Hirschi

A
  • Social Control Theory/Bonds of attachment theory
17
Q

Hirschi Overview

A
  • Crime is most common amongst individuals who are detached from society
    Four types of attachment – Commitment, Involvement, Attachment, Belief
    Correlation between truancy, single parent households, unemployment and crime
18
Q

Four Bonds of attachment (Hirschi)

A
  • Commitment (career)
  • Involvement (School activities, religious groups, community organisations)
  • Attachment ( Family, friends, community)
  • Belief ( tolerance ,fairness)
19
Q

Hirshi Evaluation

A

Can’t explain elite crimes, elites are attached (Marxism)

20
Q

Davis

A
  • Prostitution

- Crime is Functional

21
Q

Kinsley Davis Overview

A
  • SW acts as a safety valve for the release of men’s sexual frustrations without threatening the monogamous nuclear family.
22
Q

Davis Evaluation

A
  • Feminists argue that prostitution is not functional for women, though the debate over whether sex work empowers or degrades women remains contentious. - fails to account for crime not committed by men in monogamous nuclear families, as well as specific crimes like fraud or theft
23
Q

Albert Cohen

A
  • Both agreed and disagreed with Merton
  • Structural Theory
  • Alternative status hierarchy
24
Q

Cohen’ Alternative status hierarchy Overview

A

In working-class areas, boys must solve the problem of not being able to obtain middle-class status. Can achieve financial success through crime; however, cannot achieve other aspects of middle-class status (e.g., respect) through crime. Thus, lower- and working-class boys adapt to their goal blockage by setting up a deviant subculture, such as a gang, in which they can achieve status through delinquent means.

25
Q

Cohen Evaluation

A
  • explains what Merton can’t about group delinquency rather than individual delinquency.
  • Explains non-utilitarian crime as its status frustration and rejection of values
  • Not all WC boys commit crime
26
Q

Cloward and Ohlin

A

Subcultural Theory

  • suggest three different types of subculture responses which are given rise to by varied social circumstance.
  • Criminal subcultures
  • Conflict subcultures
  • Retreatist subcultures
27
Q

Cloward and Ohlin Overview

A
  • agree with Merton and say that WC boys are denied the legitimate ways to achieve and they delinquency stems from this as a strain,but Cloward and Ohlin try to identify why all of the WC boys don’t become rebellious, like the 4 different groups .
  • also suggest that Cohen doesn’t explain why there is diversity in subculture responses.
28
Q

Criminal subcultures

A
  • give WC boys the opportunity to participate in utilitarian crime (crime for gain), and most likely occur in neighbourhoods which already have crime links to professional crime and a stable adult criminal structure which can act as a profession to WC boys who will be taught by the criminal adults.
29
Q

Conflict Subcultures

A

area’s of great population turn over (moving in and out) where there cannot be established a stable criminal culture and rely on violent crimes as a source of frustration release and status

30
Q

Retreatist Subcultures

A

This third group are made up of those who have failed to be successful either way, ‘double failure’ at both illegitimate and legitimate means and goal. They drop out of society and turn to drugs abuse and alcoholism, funded mainly by small crimes for each hit.

31
Q

Cloward and Ohlin Evaluation

A
  • exaggerates the differences between the subcultures, and like most things they actually overlap. For instance utilitarian crime is present in all three subcultures
  • Like Merton, Cohen, Cloward and Ohlin both forget the crimes of the wealthy, and the wide power structure, and over represent working class crime.

Sociology - Crime and Deviance (9 decks)

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