OVERVIEW OF FUNCTIONALIST THEORY
• It is a consensus, structuralist theory that sees the source of
Functionalist Theories of Crime and Deviance •
crime & deviance located in the structure of society
Social order and cohesion are based on value consensus and
the agencies of social control seek to protect this by
controlling the threat posed by crime and deviance
DURKHEIM
• Every society shares a set of core values > collective conscience – the more MERTON – STRAIN THEORY
behaviour differed from these core values, the more likely it was to be viewed as
• Merton (1968) concluded from his American study that the vast majority of individuals share
deviant
the same goals but don’t have equal access to the means of achieving those goals
• Strong collective conscience + fair legal system compensating those harmed = the
• He identified the main cultural goals in American society as success and wealth – the American
basis of social order
Dream. He said the main means of achieving those goals was through the education system à
• 2 sides of crime – positive (helps society change and remain dynamic) & negative
when individuals fail from this system, this creates anomie
(too much crime leading to social disruption)
• When an individual is unable to achieve society’s cultural goals due to factors beyond their
Positive aspects of crime control, it causes a strain which leads to deviant behaviour – this is known as strain theory
1. Boundary 2. Changing values – 3. Social cohesion – in 5 responses to strain
maintenance – the functional rebels induce cases of horrific crimes,
criminal as an example social change by the court proceedings Conforming People who still try to achieve the main goals through legitimate means
and encourage others to purposefully disobeying and media cause Innovating People who fail at the standard route to success and find alternative and deviant
not do the same laws they think are communities to come means of reaching success and wealth – e.g. crime
wrong together Ritualism People who cannot achieve society’s goals and have stopped trying may still act
• Cohen (1966) à useful as a safety valve which allowed minor criminality or deviance to legitimately as they are used to the ritual
avoid bigger problems e.g. marriage could be stabilised by married men buying into the Retreating People who reject the main cultural goals and the means of achieving them, they
services of prostitutes may retreat from society – e.g. by dropping out of school, drugs etc.
• Cohen (1993) à crime could boost employment and the economy by creating jobs for Rebellion Instead of retreating, people may rebel against society and engage in protest and
police officers and other working in the criminal justice system revolution to try to change it
Negative aspects of crime Criticisms
1. Anomie 2. Egoism • Still fails to explain why an individual will choose one type of deviant act than another
• A sense of normlessness, confusion and • This occurs when the collective • W/c will be less concerned about violating conventional expectations of behaviour than the m/c. so the
uncertainty over social norms, often conscience becomes simply too weak to way that we are socialised limits the deviant adaptations that are available to us
found rapid social change and other restrain the selfish desire of individuals
• It assumes there is a value consensus of success = money, when there is a possibility there isn’t
disruptions of the routines and traditions • If individuals are not successfully
of everyday life socialised to accept collective values,
HIRSCHI (1969)– CONTROL THEORY
• In this situation, there is uncertainty over they may end up putting their own
what behaviour should be seen as selfish needs before those of society as • There are bonds to stop people from committing crime unless these are weakened
acceptable, and people may be partially whole & end up committing a crime • Commitment à commitment to work, education, family etc. wouldn’t risk these things
freed from the social control imposed by
• Attachment à attached to those around them, friends, family, those in community and are
the collective conscience
sensitive to their needs and wishes
Criticisms
• Involvement à involved in and kept busy by sports teams, school activities, religious groups
• Fails to explain why certain people are more likely to commit criminal acts than others
etc. no time for crime
• Assumes that the law reflects the values of the majority and fails to recognise that some
• Belief à moral beliefs like respect for others and the need to obey the law
groups have more power than others to influence law making
• Doesn’t explain why some have weaker bonds than others
• He neglects that crime like rape, child abuse or terrorism are always dysfunctional for their • Doesn’t explain the variety and forms of deviance
victims • It suggests that everyone is a potential criminal and need to be watched carefully
• He assumes that all groups have a collective conscience to deviate from in the first place
, Subcultural Theories of Crime and Deviance FOCAL CONCERNS - MILLER
• W/c juvenile delinquency is not the result of strain
or status frustration
STATUS FRUSTRATION – COHEN • They are merely acting out & exaggerating
• Albert Cohen (1955) mainstream values of w/c subculture
Ø Delinquent gangs provide prestige for adolescents frustrated at their lack of status in society
• They have developed focal concerns which give
Ø W/C boys have a lack of opportunities to succeed in mainstream society, largely due cultural deprivation –
meaning to their lives outside of work
1. Toughness
this leads to dissatisfaction with their social position > status frustration
2. Autonomy
Ø This tension is released by joining or creating groups which have alternative values for achieving status 3. Excitement
Ø These values tend to be the reverse of those of mainstream society – behaviour deviant in society becomes 4. Trouble
normal and valued in the subcultural group. E.g. petty crime or drug-taking might be valued by the group 5. Fate
• Willis – Cohen is wrong to assumes that w/c youth share the same goals as m/c youth- ‘the lads’ defined educational failure as • Young people are pushed towards crime through
success as qualifications were not needed for the factory jobs they wanted seeking these values/concerns
• Most w/c boys actually conform to school despite educational failure – they rarely commit to anti-school subcultures • Provides little evidence to show that these are specifically
• Ignores female delinquency l/c values – BOX (1981) pointed out that these could
• He neglects the role of agencies of social control in the social construction of delinquency equally apply to males across the class structure
CLOWARD & OHLIN (1960) DELINQUENCY & DRIFT - MATZA
• Combined the ideas of Merton and Cohen - they believed there is a legitimate opportunity
structure and an illegitimate opportunity structure DIFFERENTIAL • People are prisoners of the social structure,
• They also argued that access to legitimate opportunity centre could be unequal, just like acting out predetermining roles
ASSOCIATION • Rejects Cohen’s view – delinquent behaviour
access to the legitimate system. In some areas, there are criminal gangs which provide
adolescents with a deviant route to success, and in some areas, there aren’t – this explained THEORY is often directed by under-values only
why not all frustrated w/c boys turned to crime expressed in particular situations > include an
Sutherland (1939) –
Criminal subculture Conflict subculture Retreatist subculture emphasis on excitement and toughness
argued that deviance is
• Some areas have an • In areas that don’t have an • Young people who have learned – criminals learn • Techniques of neutralisation
established criminal culture, established criminal culture failed in both the criminal behaviour from 1. Denial of responsibility
where young people can be (often due to a rapid changing legitimate opportunity other criminals. This 2. Denial of injury
taught by adult career population), young people structure and
may be within the 3. Denial of the victim
criminals organise themselves into gangs illegitimate opportunity 4. Condemning the condemner
family, through parents,
• Crime in these areas are • Their crimes tend to be non- structure retreat from 5. Appeal to higher loyalties
utilitarian (crimes that make utilitarian – e.g. violence or society and turn to friends, associates or
gangs. • A view that answers criticisms of strain and
money – robbery, selling etc.) vandalism drink or drugs
This is known as subcultural theories
• Areas controlled by a mafia or • They often engage in ‘turf wars’ •
mob have a criminal with other gangs differential association • May have under-predicted delinquency à in
subculture theory as deviance is 1953, 1/3 of men had a criminal record by 30
• Assumes that the majority of people aspire to the mainstream goals of success and wealth passed on through • The view of young men drifting in and out
• Taylor, Walton and Young point to deviant groups, such as hippies, who don’t share these association with other doesn’t fit with highly organised crime gangs
goals deviants in USA
• Assume there is no overlap between these three types of subculture e.g. you can be part of a • Cohen – techniques are excuse for behaviour
retreatist and criminal at the same time
• It is a consensus, structuralist theory that sees the source of
Functionalist Theories of Crime and Deviance •
crime & deviance located in the structure of society
Social order and cohesion are based on value consensus and
the agencies of social control seek to protect this by
controlling the threat posed by crime and deviance
DURKHEIM
• Every society shares a set of core values > collective conscience – the more MERTON – STRAIN THEORY
behaviour differed from these core values, the more likely it was to be viewed as
• Merton (1968) concluded from his American study that the vast majority of individuals share
deviant
the same goals but don’t have equal access to the means of achieving those goals
• Strong collective conscience + fair legal system compensating those harmed = the
• He identified the main cultural goals in American society as success and wealth – the American
basis of social order
Dream. He said the main means of achieving those goals was through the education system à
• 2 sides of crime – positive (helps society change and remain dynamic) & negative
when individuals fail from this system, this creates anomie
(too much crime leading to social disruption)
• When an individual is unable to achieve society’s cultural goals due to factors beyond their
Positive aspects of crime control, it causes a strain which leads to deviant behaviour – this is known as strain theory
1. Boundary 2. Changing values – 3. Social cohesion – in 5 responses to strain
maintenance – the functional rebels induce cases of horrific crimes,
criminal as an example social change by the court proceedings Conforming People who still try to achieve the main goals through legitimate means
and encourage others to purposefully disobeying and media cause Innovating People who fail at the standard route to success and find alternative and deviant
not do the same laws they think are communities to come means of reaching success and wealth – e.g. crime
wrong together Ritualism People who cannot achieve society’s goals and have stopped trying may still act
• Cohen (1966) à useful as a safety valve which allowed minor criminality or deviance to legitimately as they are used to the ritual
avoid bigger problems e.g. marriage could be stabilised by married men buying into the Retreating People who reject the main cultural goals and the means of achieving them, they
services of prostitutes may retreat from society – e.g. by dropping out of school, drugs etc.
• Cohen (1993) à crime could boost employment and the economy by creating jobs for Rebellion Instead of retreating, people may rebel against society and engage in protest and
police officers and other working in the criminal justice system revolution to try to change it
Negative aspects of crime Criticisms
1. Anomie 2. Egoism • Still fails to explain why an individual will choose one type of deviant act than another
• A sense of normlessness, confusion and • This occurs when the collective • W/c will be less concerned about violating conventional expectations of behaviour than the m/c. so the
uncertainty over social norms, often conscience becomes simply too weak to way that we are socialised limits the deviant adaptations that are available to us
found rapid social change and other restrain the selfish desire of individuals
• It assumes there is a value consensus of success = money, when there is a possibility there isn’t
disruptions of the routines and traditions • If individuals are not successfully
of everyday life socialised to accept collective values,
HIRSCHI (1969)– CONTROL THEORY
• In this situation, there is uncertainty over they may end up putting their own
what behaviour should be seen as selfish needs before those of society as • There are bonds to stop people from committing crime unless these are weakened
acceptable, and people may be partially whole & end up committing a crime • Commitment à commitment to work, education, family etc. wouldn’t risk these things
freed from the social control imposed by
• Attachment à attached to those around them, friends, family, those in community and are
the collective conscience
sensitive to their needs and wishes
Criticisms
• Involvement à involved in and kept busy by sports teams, school activities, religious groups
• Fails to explain why certain people are more likely to commit criminal acts than others
etc. no time for crime
• Assumes that the law reflects the values of the majority and fails to recognise that some
• Belief à moral beliefs like respect for others and the need to obey the law
groups have more power than others to influence law making
• Doesn’t explain why some have weaker bonds than others
• He neglects that crime like rape, child abuse or terrorism are always dysfunctional for their • Doesn’t explain the variety and forms of deviance
victims • It suggests that everyone is a potential criminal and need to be watched carefully
• He assumes that all groups have a collective conscience to deviate from in the first place
, Subcultural Theories of Crime and Deviance FOCAL CONCERNS - MILLER
• W/c juvenile delinquency is not the result of strain
or status frustration
STATUS FRUSTRATION – COHEN • They are merely acting out & exaggerating
• Albert Cohen (1955) mainstream values of w/c subculture
Ø Delinquent gangs provide prestige for adolescents frustrated at their lack of status in society
• They have developed focal concerns which give
Ø W/C boys have a lack of opportunities to succeed in mainstream society, largely due cultural deprivation –
meaning to their lives outside of work
1. Toughness
this leads to dissatisfaction with their social position > status frustration
2. Autonomy
Ø This tension is released by joining or creating groups which have alternative values for achieving status 3. Excitement
Ø These values tend to be the reverse of those of mainstream society – behaviour deviant in society becomes 4. Trouble
normal and valued in the subcultural group. E.g. petty crime or drug-taking might be valued by the group 5. Fate
• Willis – Cohen is wrong to assumes that w/c youth share the same goals as m/c youth- ‘the lads’ defined educational failure as • Young people are pushed towards crime through
success as qualifications were not needed for the factory jobs they wanted seeking these values/concerns
• Most w/c boys actually conform to school despite educational failure – they rarely commit to anti-school subcultures • Provides little evidence to show that these are specifically
• Ignores female delinquency l/c values – BOX (1981) pointed out that these could
• He neglects the role of agencies of social control in the social construction of delinquency equally apply to males across the class structure
CLOWARD & OHLIN (1960) DELINQUENCY & DRIFT - MATZA
• Combined the ideas of Merton and Cohen - they believed there is a legitimate opportunity
structure and an illegitimate opportunity structure DIFFERENTIAL • People are prisoners of the social structure,
• They also argued that access to legitimate opportunity centre could be unequal, just like acting out predetermining roles
ASSOCIATION • Rejects Cohen’s view – delinquent behaviour
access to the legitimate system. In some areas, there are criminal gangs which provide
adolescents with a deviant route to success, and in some areas, there aren’t – this explained THEORY is often directed by under-values only
why not all frustrated w/c boys turned to crime expressed in particular situations > include an
Sutherland (1939) –
Criminal subculture Conflict subculture Retreatist subculture emphasis on excitement and toughness
argued that deviance is
• Some areas have an • In areas that don’t have an • Young people who have learned – criminals learn • Techniques of neutralisation
established criminal culture, established criminal culture failed in both the criminal behaviour from 1. Denial of responsibility
where young people can be (often due to a rapid changing legitimate opportunity other criminals. This 2. Denial of injury
taught by adult career population), young people structure and
may be within the 3. Denial of the victim
criminals organise themselves into gangs illegitimate opportunity 4. Condemning the condemner
family, through parents,
• Crime in these areas are • Their crimes tend to be non- structure retreat from 5. Appeal to higher loyalties
utilitarian (crimes that make utilitarian – e.g. violence or society and turn to friends, associates or
gangs. • A view that answers criticisms of strain and
money – robbery, selling etc.) vandalism drink or drugs
This is known as subcultural theories
• Areas controlled by a mafia or • They often engage in ‘turf wars’ •
mob have a criminal with other gangs differential association • May have under-predicted delinquency à in
subculture theory as deviance is 1953, 1/3 of men had a criminal record by 30
• Assumes that the majority of people aspire to the mainstream goals of success and wealth passed on through • The view of young men drifting in and out
• Taylor, Walton and Young point to deviant groups, such as hippies, who don’t share these association with other doesn’t fit with highly organised crime gangs
goals deviants in USA
• Assume there is no overlap between these three types of subculture e.g. you can be part of a • Cohen – techniques are excuse for behaviour
retreatist and criminal at the same time
