1.Functionalist, strain and subcultural theories
Crime is inevitable and universal
E - This is because not everyone is equally effectively socialised into the shared
norms and values so some individuals will be prone to deviate. Also in complex modern societies
there is a diversity of values so different groups develop their own subcultures and norms and values,
which the mainstream may see as deviant.
E - Modern societies tend to anomie as the rules governing society become less clear and weaker
because modern societies have a complex division of labour. This weakens the collective conscience
and results in higher deviance levels.
Durkheim positive functions of crime
E - One positive function is boundary maintenance. Crime produces a reaction from society and
unites its members in condemning wrongdoers and reinforcing shared values. So the role of
punishment is to reinforce shared rules and social solidarity through courtrooms which publicly
shame the offender and discourage others from breaking rules. Another positive function is
adaptation and change. All change starts with a deviant act. Society’s norms and values need to be
challenged to move forward and create a new culture and mortality otherwise it prevents
development and the needed changes.
E - Other sociologists argue crime also has positive functions. For example, Davis argues that
prostitution acts as a ‘safety valve’ for men’s sexual frustrations without threatening a monogamous
nuclear family. Polsky argues porn safely ‘channels’ sexual desires away from alternatives like
adultery which is a greater threat to the family and society.
E - However, functionalists can be criticised because they say crime is functional for society as a
whole, but this isn’t true for all individuals or groups. For example, the illegally trafficked sex workers
used in prostitution don’t benefit.
Merton's strain theory
E - Merton argues that people do deviant acts when their opportunities to achieve legitimately are
blocked. Deviance is the result of a strain between goals that a culture encourages individuals to
achieve and what the institutional structure of society allows them to achieve legitimately. An
individual's position in the social structure affects how they respond to this strain. Merton identifies
several responses including innovation, conformity, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion. Innovation is
when individuals accept the goal of money success but use new illegitimate means like theft to
achieve. On the other hand, conformists accept the culturally approved goals and achieve them
legitimately.
The American dream based on money, success and high status tells Americans their society is
meritocratic but in reality many disadvantaged groups like the w/c are denied opportunities to
achieve wealth and success because of factors like poverty. Their strain produces frustration and
creates a pressure to resort to illegitimate means (innovation) to achieve wealth such as theft, fraud
or property crime. This also explains why the w/c has a higher rate of utilitarian crimes compared to
1
,the m/c. Crime has further increased in American society because the culture emphasises achieving
success at any price than doing it legitimately.
E - The strain theory is useful to show how normal and deviant behaviour arise from the same
mainstream goals. Conformists and innovators both pursue money success; one legitimately one
illegitimately. However, he only accounts for utilitarian crimes for money gain, failing to explain
others like violence or genocide.
Subcultures strain theories
Subcultural strain theories argue deviance is a product of delinquent subcultures with different
values to the mainstream. It’s functional for its members even if it's not for society because it
provides an alternative opportunity structure for those denied legitimate means.
Cohen
E - Cohen criticises Merton because he ignores that deviance is committed in groups and ignites
crimes like assault which have no economic motive. He goes on to argue that deviance is mainly a
lower class phenomena. This is because the w/c youth are culturally deprived and so haven’t been
socialised into mainstream m/ c culture. This means they lack the means to achieve legitimately in
education and so are bottom of the status hierarchy. Their failure causes status frustration which
they resolve by forming or joining a delinquent subculture that inverts mainstream values such as
respect to property. The subculture offers the working class boys an alternative status hierarchy
where they can achieve and win status from peers through delinquent actions like vandalism or
truanting.
E - Cohen offers an explanation to non utilitarian crimes like vandalism and truancy unlike Merton
but he also assumes that w/c boys start off sharing the m/c success goals and only reject them when
they fail, he ignores the possibility that they never shared the goals in the first place.
Cloward and Ohlin
E - Cloward and Ohlin argue that not everyone denied legitimate means adapts by turning to
innovation/utilitarian crimes of theft and fraud. Different subcultures respond differently to the lack
of legitimate opportunities because of an unequal access to opportunity structures. Different
neighbourhoods also provide different illegitimate opportunities for young people to learn criminal
skills and develop criminal careers. They identify three types of deviant subcultures as a result.
Criminal subcultures are those in stable w/c neighbourhoods that offer professional criminal career
opportunities. Conflict subcultures are the loosely organised gang violence and turf wars in poor
areas with a high population turnover. And retreatist subcultures are a drop out drug subculture of
those who fail in legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structures.
E - They provide an explanation for different types of w/c deviance in terms of different subcultures.
But South argues that the boundaries are drawn too sharply as drug trade is a mix of disorganised
conflict and pro mafia but their theory doesnt let them be part of more than one subculture. Matza
also highlights that most delinquents aren’t committed to their subculture, rather they drift in and
out.
Recent strain theories
2
,E - Recent strain theories argue that young people pursue a range of goals other than money success
such as popularity with peers or the desire of young males to be treated as real men. Failure to
achieve these goals may result in delinquency. M/c juveniles may also have problems achieving such
goals and so they offer an explanation for m/c delinquency.
E - Messner and Rosenfeld’s institutional anomie theory highlights how the American dream's
obsession with money success and ‘winner takes all’ mentality exerts pressure on crime and
encourages people to get wealth at any cost. As economic goals are valued above all they undermine
other institutions like schools. In societies based on market free capitalism that also lack adequate
welfare provision like the USA high crime rates are inevitable.
2.Interactionism and labelling
E - Interactionists are interested in how and why certain acts are labelled as criminal in the first place.
No act is criminal or deviant until it is labelled. Becker says a deviant is someone who the label has
been successfully applied to. Moral entrepreneurs lead moral campaigns to change the law. This new
law has two effects. It creates a new group of outsiders or deviants that break the new law and
creates or expands a social control agency to enforce the rule and impose labels on offenders.
E - For example, Platt argues juvenile delinquency was created as a result of a campaign by the upper
class Victorian moral entrepreneurs, aimed at protecting young people at risk. Therefore it’s not the
harm of a behaviour that leads to new laws but the efforts of powerful individuals and groups who
redefine behaviour as unacceptable to extend their sphere of influence.
Stereotypes
E - Not everyone who commits a crime is punished, this depends on their interactions with agencies
of social control, appearance, background and the situation and circumstances of the offence.
Pilivian and Briar argue that agents of social control are more likely to label certain groups or people
as deviant. They found that police decisions to arrest a youth were mainly based on physical cues like
manner and dress from which they made judgments on the person's character. Other factors like
class, gender, ethnicity, time and place also influence officer decisions.
E - Officer decisions to arrest are influenced by stereotypes about offenders. Cicourel found that
officers' typification - stereotypes of what a typical delinquent is like - influenced the decision to
arrest. These stereotypes lead to class bias, with w/c areas fitting police typifications the most
closely. This results in intensive patrolling of w/c areas, leading to more arrests and confirmation of
these stereotypes.
Cicoirel saw justice as negotiable, not fixed. For example, m/c youths often aren’t charged because
their background doesn’t fit the police's 'typical delinquent' image and their parents are more able to
negotiate successfully on their behalf and convince agents of social control that they won’t do it
again. Typically, these youths are 'counselled, warned, and released' rather than prosecuted.
E - This is useful as it shows that the law is not a fixed set of rules but a construction that needs
explanation.
3
, Official crime statistics
E - OCS don’t give a valid picture so can’t be used as a resource. We should treat them as a topic to
investigate. Interactionists see OCS as socially constructed. At each stage agents of social control
make decisions influenced by labels attached to the individuals or interactions on whether to go to
the next stage. At each decision gate, the number of people decreases. Therefore statistics only tell
us about the activities of agents of social control, not the amount of crime and who commits it. This
is supported by the idea of the dark figure of crime which is the difference between official statistics
and the real rate of crime because we don't know how much is undetected/unreported/unrecorded.
E - Sociologists can use alternative statistics such as victim surveys/self report studies that are used
to gain a more accurate view of the amount of crime. However, some people may conceal, forget or
exaggerate if they've committed a crime or been a victim which reduces the validity of these.
Primary and secondary deviance
P - Labelling theorists say by labelling people as criminals, society encourages them to become more
so.
E - Labelling can lead to a crisis in self-concept which individuals resolve by accepting the label which
leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy. Lemert distinguishes between primary and secondary deviance.
Primary deviance is the deviant acts that haven’t been labelled whereas secondary deviance is the
further deviance that results from acting out the label that can provoke further hostile reactions
from society and reinforce the deviant's 'outsider' status. Secondary deviance can result in a deviant
career, where the individual joins a deviant subculture that offers deviant career opportunities and
rewards and deviant behaviour that confirms his deviant identity.
E - Young’s study of hippy Mariana users in Notting Hill shows how initially, drugs were peripheral to
hippies' lifestyle. Persecution and labelling by police led them to retreat into closed groups,
developing a deviant subculture. Drug use then became central, attracting further police attention
and creating a SFP. This shows how the hostile societal reaction to the act, not the act itself, creates
serious deviance. Labelling theorists argue that a deviant career is not inevitable, as individuals are
always free to choose not to deviate further.
E - However, the emphasis on negative effects of labelling gives offenders a victim status, ignoring
the real victims of crime.
Deviance amplification spiral
E - The deviance amplification spiral is the process in which attempts to control deviance leads to an
increase in deviance levels, leading to greater attempts to control which produces more deviance.
Cohen’s mods and rockers show how press exaggeration and distorted reporting of events began a
moral panic with growing public concern and moral entrepreneurs calling for a crackdown. Police
arrested more youth and courts imposed harsher penalties which confirmed the original media
reaction and provoked more public concern. Demonising of mods and rockers as ‘folk devil’ caused
further marginalisation as outsiders resulting in more deviant behaviour on their part.
E-
E - The pursuit of folk devils draws resources away from detecting and punishing the crimes that
make up the dark figure of crime.
4
Crime is inevitable and universal
E - This is because not everyone is equally effectively socialised into the shared
norms and values so some individuals will be prone to deviate. Also in complex modern societies
there is a diversity of values so different groups develop their own subcultures and norms and values,
which the mainstream may see as deviant.
E - Modern societies tend to anomie as the rules governing society become less clear and weaker
because modern societies have a complex division of labour. This weakens the collective conscience
and results in higher deviance levels.
Durkheim positive functions of crime
E - One positive function is boundary maintenance. Crime produces a reaction from society and
unites its members in condemning wrongdoers and reinforcing shared values. So the role of
punishment is to reinforce shared rules and social solidarity through courtrooms which publicly
shame the offender and discourage others from breaking rules. Another positive function is
adaptation and change. All change starts with a deviant act. Society’s norms and values need to be
challenged to move forward and create a new culture and mortality otherwise it prevents
development and the needed changes.
E - Other sociologists argue crime also has positive functions. For example, Davis argues that
prostitution acts as a ‘safety valve’ for men’s sexual frustrations without threatening a monogamous
nuclear family. Polsky argues porn safely ‘channels’ sexual desires away from alternatives like
adultery which is a greater threat to the family and society.
E - However, functionalists can be criticised because they say crime is functional for society as a
whole, but this isn’t true for all individuals or groups. For example, the illegally trafficked sex workers
used in prostitution don’t benefit.
Merton's strain theory
E - Merton argues that people do deviant acts when their opportunities to achieve legitimately are
blocked. Deviance is the result of a strain between goals that a culture encourages individuals to
achieve and what the institutional structure of society allows them to achieve legitimately. An
individual's position in the social structure affects how they respond to this strain. Merton identifies
several responses including innovation, conformity, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion. Innovation is
when individuals accept the goal of money success but use new illegitimate means like theft to
achieve. On the other hand, conformists accept the culturally approved goals and achieve them
legitimately.
The American dream based on money, success and high status tells Americans their society is
meritocratic but in reality many disadvantaged groups like the w/c are denied opportunities to
achieve wealth and success because of factors like poverty. Their strain produces frustration and
creates a pressure to resort to illegitimate means (innovation) to achieve wealth such as theft, fraud
or property crime. This also explains why the w/c has a higher rate of utilitarian crimes compared to
1
,the m/c. Crime has further increased in American society because the culture emphasises achieving
success at any price than doing it legitimately.
E - The strain theory is useful to show how normal and deviant behaviour arise from the same
mainstream goals. Conformists and innovators both pursue money success; one legitimately one
illegitimately. However, he only accounts for utilitarian crimes for money gain, failing to explain
others like violence or genocide.
Subcultures strain theories
Subcultural strain theories argue deviance is a product of delinquent subcultures with different
values to the mainstream. It’s functional for its members even if it's not for society because it
provides an alternative opportunity structure for those denied legitimate means.
Cohen
E - Cohen criticises Merton because he ignores that deviance is committed in groups and ignites
crimes like assault which have no economic motive. He goes on to argue that deviance is mainly a
lower class phenomena. This is because the w/c youth are culturally deprived and so haven’t been
socialised into mainstream m/ c culture. This means they lack the means to achieve legitimately in
education and so are bottom of the status hierarchy. Their failure causes status frustration which
they resolve by forming or joining a delinquent subculture that inverts mainstream values such as
respect to property. The subculture offers the working class boys an alternative status hierarchy
where they can achieve and win status from peers through delinquent actions like vandalism or
truanting.
E - Cohen offers an explanation to non utilitarian crimes like vandalism and truancy unlike Merton
but he also assumes that w/c boys start off sharing the m/c success goals and only reject them when
they fail, he ignores the possibility that they never shared the goals in the first place.
Cloward and Ohlin
E - Cloward and Ohlin argue that not everyone denied legitimate means adapts by turning to
innovation/utilitarian crimes of theft and fraud. Different subcultures respond differently to the lack
of legitimate opportunities because of an unequal access to opportunity structures. Different
neighbourhoods also provide different illegitimate opportunities for young people to learn criminal
skills and develop criminal careers. They identify three types of deviant subcultures as a result.
Criminal subcultures are those in stable w/c neighbourhoods that offer professional criminal career
opportunities. Conflict subcultures are the loosely organised gang violence and turf wars in poor
areas with a high population turnover. And retreatist subcultures are a drop out drug subculture of
those who fail in legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structures.
E - They provide an explanation for different types of w/c deviance in terms of different subcultures.
But South argues that the boundaries are drawn too sharply as drug trade is a mix of disorganised
conflict and pro mafia but their theory doesnt let them be part of more than one subculture. Matza
also highlights that most delinquents aren’t committed to their subculture, rather they drift in and
out.
Recent strain theories
2
,E - Recent strain theories argue that young people pursue a range of goals other than money success
such as popularity with peers or the desire of young males to be treated as real men. Failure to
achieve these goals may result in delinquency. M/c juveniles may also have problems achieving such
goals and so they offer an explanation for m/c delinquency.
E - Messner and Rosenfeld’s institutional anomie theory highlights how the American dream's
obsession with money success and ‘winner takes all’ mentality exerts pressure on crime and
encourages people to get wealth at any cost. As economic goals are valued above all they undermine
other institutions like schools. In societies based on market free capitalism that also lack adequate
welfare provision like the USA high crime rates are inevitable.
2.Interactionism and labelling
E - Interactionists are interested in how and why certain acts are labelled as criminal in the first place.
No act is criminal or deviant until it is labelled. Becker says a deviant is someone who the label has
been successfully applied to. Moral entrepreneurs lead moral campaigns to change the law. This new
law has two effects. It creates a new group of outsiders or deviants that break the new law and
creates or expands a social control agency to enforce the rule and impose labels on offenders.
E - For example, Platt argues juvenile delinquency was created as a result of a campaign by the upper
class Victorian moral entrepreneurs, aimed at protecting young people at risk. Therefore it’s not the
harm of a behaviour that leads to new laws but the efforts of powerful individuals and groups who
redefine behaviour as unacceptable to extend their sphere of influence.
Stereotypes
E - Not everyone who commits a crime is punished, this depends on their interactions with agencies
of social control, appearance, background and the situation and circumstances of the offence.
Pilivian and Briar argue that agents of social control are more likely to label certain groups or people
as deviant. They found that police decisions to arrest a youth were mainly based on physical cues like
manner and dress from which they made judgments on the person's character. Other factors like
class, gender, ethnicity, time and place also influence officer decisions.
E - Officer decisions to arrest are influenced by stereotypes about offenders. Cicourel found that
officers' typification - stereotypes of what a typical delinquent is like - influenced the decision to
arrest. These stereotypes lead to class bias, with w/c areas fitting police typifications the most
closely. This results in intensive patrolling of w/c areas, leading to more arrests and confirmation of
these stereotypes.
Cicoirel saw justice as negotiable, not fixed. For example, m/c youths often aren’t charged because
their background doesn’t fit the police's 'typical delinquent' image and their parents are more able to
negotiate successfully on their behalf and convince agents of social control that they won’t do it
again. Typically, these youths are 'counselled, warned, and released' rather than prosecuted.
E - This is useful as it shows that the law is not a fixed set of rules but a construction that needs
explanation.
3
, Official crime statistics
E - OCS don’t give a valid picture so can’t be used as a resource. We should treat them as a topic to
investigate. Interactionists see OCS as socially constructed. At each stage agents of social control
make decisions influenced by labels attached to the individuals or interactions on whether to go to
the next stage. At each decision gate, the number of people decreases. Therefore statistics only tell
us about the activities of agents of social control, not the amount of crime and who commits it. This
is supported by the idea of the dark figure of crime which is the difference between official statistics
and the real rate of crime because we don't know how much is undetected/unreported/unrecorded.
E - Sociologists can use alternative statistics such as victim surveys/self report studies that are used
to gain a more accurate view of the amount of crime. However, some people may conceal, forget or
exaggerate if they've committed a crime or been a victim which reduces the validity of these.
Primary and secondary deviance
P - Labelling theorists say by labelling people as criminals, society encourages them to become more
so.
E - Labelling can lead to a crisis in self-concept which individuals resolve by accepting the label which
leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy. Lemert distinguishes between primary and secondary deviance.
Primary deviance is the deviant acts that haven’t been labelled whereas secondary deviance is the
further deviance that results from acting out the label that can provoke further hostile reactions
from society and reinforce the deviant's 'outsider' status. Secondary deviance can result in a deviant
career, where the individual joins a deviant subculture that offers deviant career opportunities and
rewards and deviant behaviour that confirms his deviant identity.
E - Young’s study of hippy Mariana users in Notting Hill shows how initially, drugs were peripheral to
hippies' lifestyle. Persecution and labelling by police led them to retreat into closed groups,
developing a deviant subculture. Drug use then became central, attracting further police attention
and creating a SFP. This shows how the hostile societal reaction to the act, not the act itself, creates
serious deviance. Labelling theorists argue that a deviant career is not inevitable, as individuals are
always free to choose not to deviate further.
E - However, the emphasis on negative effects of labelling gives offenders a victim status, ignoring
the real victims of crime.
Deviance amplification spiral
E - The deviance amplification spiral is the process in which attempts to control deviance leads to an
increase in deviance levels, leading to greater attempts to control which produces more deviance.
Cohen’s mods and rockers show how press exaggeration and distorted reporting of events began a
moral panic with growing public concern and moral entrepreneurs calling for a crackdown. Police
arrested more youth and courts imposed harsher penalties which confirmed the original media
reaction and provoked more public concern. Demonising of mods and rockers as ‘folk devil’ caused
further marginalisation as outsiders resulting in more deviant behaviour on their part.
E-
E - The pursuit of folk devils draws resources away from detecting and punishing the crimes that
make up the dark figure of crime.
4
