FUNCTIONALIST, STRAIN + SUBCULTURAL THEORIES.
DURKHEIM’S FUNCTIONALIST THEORY.
⍟ Society as based on value consensus. A culture is a set of shared N & V. Sharing the same culture produces social solidarity.
⍟ In order to achieve this solidarity, society has 2 key mechanism:
1- Socialisation, to help individuals internalise the same N + V
2- Social control mechanisms → rewards for conformity + punishments for deviance: help indiv behave in the way society expects.
The Inevitability Of Crime.
⍟ Durkheim believe that crime is inevitable and normal in society. But too much crime will destabilise society.
⍟ They argue there are least 2 reasons why crime + deviance are found in all societies:
- Not everybody is equally effectively socialised into the N + V, so some individuals will be prone to deviate.
- There is a diversity of lifestyles in modern societies. Different groups develop their own subcultures with distinctive
N + V. What the members of the subculture regard as normal, mainstream culture may see as deviant.
⍟ Crime + deviance is associated with mechanical solidarity. In pre-industrial - close knit community promoted conformity.
⍟ Modern societies tend towards anomie / normlessness, - The rules governing behaviour become weaker + less clear cut,
- Modern societies → complex, specialised D.O.L = individuals become different from one another.
= This weakens the shared culture / collective conscience + ⬆deviance. E.g Durkheim sees anomie as a cause of suicide.
The Positive Functions Of Crime.
⍟ 1 = Boundary Maintenance
- Crime produces a reaction from society, uniting its members in condemnation (disapproval) of the wrongdoer + reinforcing their
commitment to the shared N + V.
- People’s behaviour is governed by positive + negative sanctions (rewards & punishments).
- When people commit crime, they are punished, to reaffirm society’s shared rules + reinforce social solidarity.
- These sanctions remind everyone about the rights + wrongs & discourages others from rule breaking. E.g the rituals of the
courtroom publically stigmatise the offender, which discourages others from committing crime. – As COHEN notes, the media may
place a role in dramatising crime, creating ‘folk devils’
⍟ 2 = Adaptation & Change
- Crime also has the +VE function of driving change + adaptation.
- Durkheim believes that all change starts with an act of deviance when individual’s ideas go against existing N & V.
- Initially these ideas will appear deviant. However in the long run their values may give rise to a new culture + morality.
E.g the civil rights movement was originally seen as deviant but it has driven +VE change, - has become normal in current society.
--- THUS, too much crime threatens to tear the bonds of society apart + too little = society is controlling its members too much,
preventing social change.
Other Functions Of Crime::
⍟ SAFETY VALVE → KINGSLEY DAVIS (1961) - deviance allows people to ‘Let off steam’ in a relatively harmless way. Allows people to
de-stress (& remain functional) COHEN used the example of prostitution as a release that allowed sexual expression.
⍟ WARNING DEVICE → COHEN proposed that when crime/deviance occurs - sends a message to us that a social institution is not
functioning properly. This then prompts govs/councils to do something about the issue. E.g ⬆ rates of truancy may tell us that there
are problems with the education system + policy makers need to make appropriate changes to it.
⍟ JOBS → Crime creates employment, which is not only useful for individuals, but is also good for families + society as a whole. E.g
At youth centres, the place can provide a job for young people, or forensic scientists + prison officers only have these jobs because
of crime in the first place.
--- Functionalists have also developed the idea that deviance is inevitable. ERIKSON (1966) - if deviance performs +ve functions, TMT
society is actually organised to promote deviance. The true function of agencies of social control, e.g the police, may be to sustain a
certain level of crime, rather than to completely remove it. This could be explained by the labelling theory.
EVALUATION Of The Functionalist Theory Strengths:
⍟ +VE - Useful in showing ways in which deviance is integral to society. It provides an important analysis that directs attention to the
ways in which deviance can have hidden functions for society.
⍟ -VE - Durkheim argues society requires a certain level of crime but offers no explanation of what is the right amount
⍟ -VE - Don’t fully ex why crime exists in the 1st place - Not likely that criminal’s behave that way to intentionally improve society.
⍟ -VE- Doesn’t always promote solidarity; Lead to people becoming ⬆ isolated. E.g fear of crime - force⬆women to stay indoors.
⍟ -VE- Focus too much on society + ignore the effects on the indiv. E.g, Crime does not perform +ve functions for the victim or
those around them.
,MERTON’S STRAIN THEORY. (1938)
⍟ Strain theories - People engage in deviant behaviour when unable to achieve socially approved goals by legitimate means. E.g
May become frustrated + resort to criminal means of getting what they want/find comfort for their failure in drug use.
Merton’s explanation of crime combines 2 elements:
1) STRUCTURAL factors – society’s unequal opportunity structure.
2) CULTURAL factors – the strong emphasis on success + the weaker emphasis on using legitimate means to achieve them.
For Merton, deviance is the result of a strain between → the goals that a culture encourages individuals to achieve + what the
institutional structure of society allows them to achieve legitimately. (Expected to want) + (How they may achieve these goals)
The American Dream
⍟ 1 E.g of this strain is the ‘American Dream’. American culture values money + material wealth.
⍟ Expected to pursue this goal by legitimate means -- Self - discipline, educational qua + hark work.
⍟ This ideology tells Americans that their society is a meritocratic one - there are opportunities for all.
⍟ However, the reality is that many disadvantaged groups are denied the opportunities to achieve legitimately. E.g, poverty,
inadequate schooling + discrimination in the job market may block opportunities for many ethnic minorities + w/c.
⍟ The resulting strain between the cultural goal of money success + the lack of legitimate opportunities to achieve it, creates
frustration + a pressure to resort to illegitimate means e.g crime & deviance. Calls this pressure to deviate - the strain to anomie.
⍟ This pressure to deviate is further⬆ by the fact that American culture puts ⬆emphasis on achieving success at any price than
achieving through legitimate means. (winning game becomes ⬆ imp than playing by rules)
ஃ The goal creates a desire to succeed, + lack of opportunity creates a pressure to adopt illegitimate means.
Deviant Adaptation To Strain.
Response GOAL MEANS Merton uses strain theory to explain Some of the patterns of deviance found in society.
Conformity + + Indiv’s position in social structure affects the way they adapt or respond to the strain to anomie.
Innovation + -- There are 5 different types of adaptation...
Ritualism -- + depending on whether an indiv accepts, rejects or
Retreatism -- -- replaces approved cultural goals + the legitimate means of achieving them.
Rebellion -/+ -/+ + the legitimate means of achieving them.
Conformity: Indiv accept the culturally approved goals + strive to achieve them legitimately. → → Most likely the response of
m/c indiv -have good opportunities to achieve, but Merton sees it as the response of most Americans
Innovation: Indiv accept the goal of money success but use ‘new’ illegitimate means e.g theft or fraud to achieve it.
→ → Generally the response adopted by w/c indivi who are at most pressure to deviate.
Ritualism: Indivi give up on trying to achieve the goals but have internalised the legitimate means + follow the rules for their
own sake. → → Typically the response of lower- m/c office workers in dead end routine jobs.
Retreatism: Indivi reject both the goals + the legitimate means + become dropouts → → Merton includes tramps, alcoholics +
drug addicts as examples.
Rebellion: Indivi reject the existing society’s goals + mean but they replace them with new ones, to bring about revolutionary
change. → → Rebels include political radicals such as hippies
EVALUATION Of Merton:
+VE: Shows how both normal and deviant behaviour can arise from the same mainstream goals. Both conformists and innovators
are pursuing money success, one legitimately the other illegitimately.
+VE: Explains patterns shown in official statistics → Most crime is property crime in America as they value material wealth so
highly, + lower class crime rates are higher as they have least opportunity to obtain wealth legitimately
-VE: Takes official crime statistics at face value. These over represent w/c crime = Merton see crime as a mainly w/c phenomenon.
-VE: Too deterministic – The w/c experience the most strain, yet they do not all deviate.
-VE: Marxists argue that the theory ignores the power of the ruling class to make + enforce laws in a way to criminalise the
proletariat but not the bourgeoisie.
-VE: Assumes there is value consensus–Everybody strives for the same goal of success=ignores that some may not share this goal.
-VE: Only accounts for utilitarian crime for monetary gain, + not crimes of violence, vandalism etc. For this reason, subcultural
strain theories may provide a better explanation - It also can’t account for corporate crimes by the rich, or state crimes e.g torture.
-VE: Exp how deviance results from indiv adaptation to the strain - ignores the role of group deviance, e.g delinquent subcultures.
,SUBCULTURAL STRAIN THEORIES.
⍟ Against Merton’s theory.
⍟ See deviance as the product of a delinquent subculture with diff values from those of mainstream society.
⍟ See subcultures as providing an alternative opportunity for status among those who cannot achieve by legitimate means.
⍟ Subcultures are a solution to a problem + functional for their members, even if not for wider society.
COHEN Status Frustration. (1955)
⍟ Cohen agrees with Merton that deviance is largely a lower-class phenomenon, which results from the inability of those to achieve
mainstream goals by legitimate means e.g educational achievement.
⍟ However Cohen criticises Merton’s theory for 2 reasons:
- Ignoring the fact that deviance is often committed in groups, especially among the young
- Ignoring non-utilitarian crimes e.g assault + vandalism, which may have no economic motive.
⍟ Cohen focuses on deviance among w/c boys.
⍟ They face anomie in the m/c dominated school system.
⍟ They suffer from cultural deprivation + lack skills to achieve.
⍟ Their inability to succeed in this m/c world leaves them at the bottom of the official status hierarchy.
⍟ As they are unable to achieve status by legitimate means, they suffer status frustration.
⍟ They resolve their frustration by rejecting mainstream m/c value + turn to other boys in the same situation, forming/joining a
delinquent subculture.
Alternative Status Hierarchy
⍟ Subculture’s values are spite, hostility + malice for those outside it.
⍟ The delinquent subculture inverts the values of mainstream society.
⍟ What society rejects, the subculture praises + vice versa. E.g. Society upholds regular school attendance + respect
for property, whereas in the subculture, boys gain status from vandalising property + truanting.
⍟ ஃ The subculture’s function is that it offers the boys an alternative status hierarchy, in which they can achieve.
⍟ Having failed in the legitimate opportunity structure, the boys create their own illegitimate opportunity structure in which they
can win status from their peers through their delinquent actions.
EVALUATION of Cohen’s theory
+VE: Can explain non-utilitarian crime among the w/c unlike Merton. E.g Ideas of status frustration + alternative status hierarchy
help to explain non-economic delinquency e.g vandalism, violence & truanting.
-VE: However, he assumes that all w/c boys start off sharing these m/c values, but reject them when they fail. He ignores the
possibility that they didn’t share these values in the 1st place, + so never saw themselves as failures. It could be that w/c boys
were never effectively socialised into the mainstream values.
CLOWARD & OHLIN: 3 Subcultures. (1960)
⍟ Like Merton and Cohen, Cloward & Ohlin agree that w/c youths are denied legitimate opportunities to achieve ‘money success’ +
their deviance stems from this.
⍟ However Cloward & Ohlin note that not everybody in this situation adapts to it by turning to ‘innovation’ & utilitarian crimes.
⍟ Different subcultures respond in different ways to the lack of legitimate opportunity. E.g The subculture shown by Cohen resorts
to violence + vandalism, not economic crime.
⍟ Cloward & Ohlin explain the differences in subcultures in terms of illegitimate opportunity.
⍟ They argue that the key reason why different subcultural responses occur, is not only unequal access to legitimate opportunity
structure, but unequal access to illegitimate opportunity structures. E.g Not everybody who fails by legitimate means e.g schooling
has an equal chance of becoming a successful safecracker.
⍟ Similarly to legitimate opportunities, they would need connections + chance to learn their trade to be successful. Especially with
crimes such as financial fraud, it would require a certain level of skill + practise to be able to go uncaught.
The Chicago School.
Cultural Transmission Theory - SHAW & MCKAY 1942, noted how some neighbourhood develop a criminal tradition or culture,
that is transmitted from generation to gen, while other neighbourhoods remain crime free over the same periods.
Differential Association Theory - SUTHERLAND 1939, was interested in the processes by which people become deviant. He
argued that deviance was behaviour learned through social interaction with others who are deviant. This includes learning both
criminal values + skills.
⍟ TST different neighbourhoods provide diff illegitimate opportunities for young people to learn criminal skills + develop criminal
careers.
,⍟ They identify 3 different subcultures that result:
⍟ Criminal subcultures:
- Provide youths with an apprenticeship for a career in utilitarian crime
- These arise in neighbourhoods with a longstanding criminal culture of professional adult criminals.
- Allows the young to associate with adult criminals, who can select those with the right abilities + provide them with training,
role models + opportunities for employment on the criminal career ladder.
⍟ Conflict subcultures:
- Arise in areas of high population turnover.
- This results in ⬆levels of social disorganisation (which create instability, disrupting family structure) + prevents stable criminal
network developing → TMT only illegitimate opportunities available are within loosely organised gangs.
- Here, violence provides a release for frustration at their blocked opportunities, as well as an alternative source of status that
they can earn by winning territory from rival gangs. (This subculture is closest as Cohen described.)
⍟ Retreatist subcultures:
- In any neighbourhood, not everyone who aspires to be a professional criminal actually succeeds.
- ஃ Those who double fail, in both legitimate + illegitimate opportunity structures turn to retreatists subcultures based on illegal
drug use.
EVALUATION of Cloward & Ohlin:
+ VE: Strain theory has had an influence on both later theories of crime + on gov policy. E.g Merton’s ideas play an imp part in left
realist explanations of crime. In 1960s - Ohlin was appointed to help develop crime policy in the USA under president Kennedy.
+ VE: Unlike Cohen, provide an explanation for different types of w/c deviance in terms of different subcultures.
- VE: Draw the boundaries too sharply between these e.g S OUTH 2014→ drug trade is a mixture of ‘disorganized’ crime(conflict
subculture) + the professional style criminal subcultures. Likewise, some ‘retreatist’ users are also professional dealers, making a
living from the utilitarian crime. In Cloward + Ohlin’s theory, it wouldn’t be possible to belong to ⬆than one of these subcultures.
- VE: Agree that most crime is w/c = ignoring crimes of the wealthy (fraud).
- VE: Over predicts the amount of w/c crime. Ignore the wider power structure, including who makes + enforces the law.
- VE: Strain theories have been called reactive theories of subculture – criticised for assuming that everybody starts off sharing
mainstream goals.
-VE: By contrast, M ILLER 1962 argues that the lower class has its own independent subculture, separate from mainstream culture,
with its own values. Argues that deviance arises out of an attempt to achieve their own goals, not mainstream ones (success). He
calls these goals ‘focal concerns’- (Autonomy, Trouble, Toughness, Excitement) so its members are not frustrated by failure.
⍟ Although Miller agrees deviance is widespread in lower class, he argues this arises out of an attempt to achieve their own goals,
not mainstream ones. However, critics - Many m/c also adopt ‘focal concerns’ + not all w/c adopt ‘focal concerns’
⍟ Evidence to support Miller - Howard P ARKER, found evidence of ‘focal concerns’ in his study of w/c youth in Liverpool.
⍟ HOWEVER, David DOWNES (1966) found limited evidence of subcultural values in his study of w/c youth in East London. Instead,
he found them dissociated from mainstream values of long - term employment, + instead, focused on leisure + hedonism.
-VE: M
ATZA 1964 Subterranean Values - Adopts an interactionist critique of subcultural theory. Matza argues that delinquents
are simply more likely to behave according to subterranean values in 'inappropriate' situations. Most delinquents are not strongly
committed to their subculture, as strain theories suggest, but drift in + out of delinquency.
Recent Strain Theories. - Capitalist economies, generate greater strain to crime.
⍟ Young people may pursue a variety of goals other than money success. E.g popularity with peer, autonomy from adults or for
some young male to be treated like ‘real men’.
⍟ Argue that failure to achieve these goals may result in delinquency.
⍟ Argue m/c juveniles too may have problems achieving such goals, thus offering an explanations for m/c delinquency.
Institutional anomie theory.
⍟ MESSNER & ROSENFELD’S (2011) I.A.T focuses on American Dream.
⍟ Argue its obsession with money success exert pressures towards crime, by encouraging an anomic cultural environment.
⍟ In USA, economic goals are valued above all + this undermines other institutions. E.g schools become geared to preparing pupils
for the labour market, rather than including values such as respect for others. Messner + Rosenfeld concludes that in societies based
on free-market capitalism + inadequate welfare provision, ⬆crime rates are inevitable.
---- Evidence to support → DOWNES & HANSEN (2006) - Survey of crime rates + welfare spending in 18 countries, found that
societies that spent ⬆on welfare had ⬇rates of imprisonment. TMT societies that have adequate welfare provision have less crime.
, INTERACTIONISM & LABELLING THEORY.
⍟ Labelling theorists asks how + why some people + actions come to be labelled as criminal or deviant + what effects this has on
those who are labelled.
⍟ They regard official statistics as social constructs, rather as a valid picture of crime.
THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF CRIME.
⍟ Labelling theorists e.g Becker → deviance is in the eye of the beholder, no act is deviant until it is labelled. It is not the nature of
the act that makes it deviant, but the nature of society’s reaction to the act.
⍟ Hence, for Becker a deviant is somebody to whom the label has successfully applied.
⍟ This leads labelling theorists to look at how + why rules + laws get made.
⍟ They are particularly interested in what Becker calls ‘moral entrepreneurs’ - people who lead a campaigns to change laws in belief
that it will benefit those whom it is applied. Wilberforce - Campaigned against slavery - How rules are made.
⍟ However Becker argues this new law has 2 effects: (can be good or bad)
1] The creation of a new group of outsiders (deviants who break the law)
2] The creation/expansion of social control agencies e.g the police + courts, to enforce the rules + impose labels on offenders.
⇩⇩⇩⇩
⍟ E.g Platt ( 1969) - the idea of ‘juvenile delinquency’ was originally created as a result of a campaign by upper-class Victorian
moral entrepreneurs, aimed at protecting young people at risk. This enabled the state to extend its powers beyond criminal
offences involving the young, into ‘status offences’ (where their behaviour is only an offence because of their age) e.g truancy.
their own power. E.g, the US Federal
⍟ Becker notes that social control agencies may also campaign for a change in the law to ↑
Bureau of Narcotics successfully campaigned to outlaw marijuana, supposedly on the ground of its ill effects on young people.
--- However Becker argues it was really to extend the Bureau’s sphere of influence + to increase their power.
⍟ Thus, it’s not the inherent harmfulness of a particular behaviour that leads to new laws being created, but rather the efforts of
powerful individuals to redefine that behaviour as unacceptable.
Who gets labelled?
Not everybody who commits an offence is punished for it. Whether a person is arrested,charged/convicted depends on factors e.g
~ Their interactions with agencies of social control.
~ Their appearance, background (class) and personal biography.
~ The situation and circumstances of the offence.
⍟ Studies have shown that agencies of social control are more likely to label certain groups of people as deviant or criminal.
⍟ E.g, Piliavin & Briar found that police decisions to arrest a youth were mainly based on physical cues (e.g manner + dress) from
which they made judgements about the youth’s character.
⍟ Officer’s decisions were also influenced by the suspect’s gender, class + ethnicity, time + place. E.g those stopped at night in
↑crime areas had↑risk of arrests. Similarly, a study of ASBOS found they were disproportionately used against ethnic minorities.
Cicourel: The negotiation of justice.
⍟ Officer’s decisions to arrest are influenced by their stereotypes about offenders.
⍟ Found that officers’ typifications (stereotypes of delinquents) led them to concentrate on certain ‘types’.
⍟ This resulted in a class bias in law enforcement – w/c areas/people fitted police typifications most closely.
⍟ = Led to police to patrol w/c areas ↑ intensively, resulting in ↑
arrests confirming their stereotypes.
⍟ Also found that other agents of social control within the criminal justice system reinforced this bias.
E.g, probation officers held the stereotype that juvenile delinquency was caused by broken homes, poverty + poor parenting.
ஃ tended to see youths from such backgrounds as likely to reoffend + were ↓likely to support non-custodial sentences for them.
⍟ Justice is not fixed but negotiable. E.g when a m/c youth was arrested he was↓likely to be charged - his background didn’t fit the
idea of a ‘typical delinquent’ → his parents were ↑ likely to negotiate successfully on his behalf = he would be ↑
likely to be
cautioned + released, rather than prosecuted.
Topic VS Resource.
⍟ Cicourel’s study has implications for the use we make of official crime stats. These stats don’t give a valid picture of the patterns of
crime + can’t be used as a resource. I.e as facts about crime.
⍟ Instead, should treat them as a topic for sociologists to investigate. → Mustn't take crime stats at face value + investigate the
processes that created them. This will allow us to see how control agencies process + label certain types of people as criminal.
⍟ Cicourel used pp + non pp observations. As an observer, went undercover as police officer on patrol + controlled court cases. As a
pp, went undercover as unpaid probation officer. Found undercover typifications & assumptions of control agents.
-ve: No sure way of knowing if his research/method enabled a valid interpretation of what was observed.
