CN Sociology - Theories of Crime
Functionalism & Crime
The Nature of Society
-Society is based on mutual agreement and unity. Society is fair and meritocratic - everyone has the
possibility to succeed and be socially mobile - everyone wants to have high life chances.
-Durkheim highlights the fact that within a class based society some people are able to achieve more than
others. This is still useful because all of society’s roles get filled up (no matter how high / low they might be). This
is known as role allocation.
-Crime will always occur because meritocracy creates differences and inequality between individuals.
-Socialisation = instils the shared culture into its members. This helps to ensure that individuals internalise the
same norms and values.
-Social control = mechanism include rewards (or positive sanctions) for conformity, and punishments (or
negative sanctions) for deviance.
Inevitability of Crime
-Durkheim (1983) - “crime is normal... an integral part of all healthy societies.”
-Durkheim also argues that too much crime is not good for society.
-He argues that crime happens for several reasons:
1. Poor socialisation
2. In complex modern societies, where there is lots of diversity, subcultures emerge with their own values
and culture that can be considered as deviant by the rest of society.
The Positive Functions of Crime
Boundary maintenance
Durkheim: People's behaviour is governed by positive and negative sanctions. When people commit
crime they are punished. This reminds everyone about the ‘rights & wrongs’ and how people should
behave for the greater good of society.
The purpose of crime is to reinforce people's shared values, reaffirming social solidarity.
Ex. Patriotism post 9/11 and 7/7, reaction to Sarah Everard’s murder (vigils reaffirmed the idea that
violence against women is wrong), murder of Geogre Floyd (unified society to condemn racism).
Adaptation and change
Durkheim argues that all change in society starts with an act of deviance. He argues that individuals
with new views must not be stifled by the wright of social control. People must be able to express new
values and challenge existing norms. However, these challenges will be seen as an act of deviance in
the first instant.
Durkheim believed that either too much or too little time signalled that there was something wrong with
society.
Too much and society's bonds were going to be destroyed. Too little and society was too repressive,
stifling individual freedom and preventing change.
Ex. Women’s rights movement, civil rights movement, stonewall riots, poll tax riots 1990, student
protests 2010.
Safety valve
Cohen (1961) suggested that deviance allow people to ‘let off steam’ in a relatively harmless way. This
allows people to de-stress (and remain functional). Cohen used the example of prostitution as a release
that allowed for sexual expression.
Warning device
, Clinard (1974) proposed that when crime / deviance occurs it sends a message to us that society’s
social order is breaking down. This then prompts government / councils to do something about the
problem. Cohen links this to high truancy in schools.
Jobs
Crime created employment which is not only useful for individuals but is also good for families and
society as a whole.
-Remember, all of these factors relate to the reinforcement of value consensus, social solidarity and social
stability as these are the key ideas within functionalism.
Why Does Crime Occur In The First Place?
-Anomie & atrophy = when people experience inequality and barriers to their life chances they begin to
experience anomie (normlessness). As a result of this anomie they turn to crime / deviance in order to gain the
things they have been prevented from achieving.
-Anomie, and the resulting behaviour, breaks down social solidarity and weakens value consensus. This is
described as the atrophy (erosion) of society's norms and values. Atrophy is therefore dysfunctional if it occurs
on a large scale.
Durkheim is not specific in how much crime is needed for society to be functional. Equality he does
not state how much crime is detrimental to society.
Crime has not necessarily been created to create solidarity.
Crime does not always create solidarity. For example, what about the women that stay at home
through fear of being attacked?
However:
Some crimes do promote solidarity amongst communities. For example communities that come
together to condem a brutal attack.
Functionalism does provide a valuable way of showing us that not everything that is bad, is bad for
society.
Merton (1938) Strain Theory
-Merton sees anomie as a permanent feature of ‘The American Dream Society’.
-This was due to the fact that society (within its value consensus) puts pressure on people to achieve - society
presents us with cultural goals.
-Society also presents us with institutionalised means (socially approved / acceptable ways) of achieving these
cultural goals.
-If we are able to use institutionalised means to achieve our desired cultural goals we can conform to our
society’s value consensus and get along happily and functionally.
5 Responses to Anomie & Strain
-Conformity = people accept cultural goals and work hard to achieve them. Merton argues that this is a typical
response of most Americans but is arguably the most likely to be seen in the m/c.
-Innovation = people use new illegitimate means to achieve the goal of money and success (fraud and theft).
The lower a person's social class, the more pressure it is argued they have to innovate.
-Ritualism = people accept the cultural goals but have given up on trying to achieve them. However, they have
internalised the legitimate means and so they follow the rules for their own sake. Typical lower m/c behaviour in
dead end office jobs.
-Retreatists = people who reject both the goals and the legitimate means to achieve them. Merton called these
people vagrants and drop outs.
-Rebellion = people who reject the goals of society and create their own with the hope of instigating revolutionary
change. Ex. political rebels and hippies.
Does a consensus exist? Do we even have a consensus around means and goals?
, Too much focus on individual responses to anomie. This ignores how different groups respond. Ex.
subcultures.
Merton places too much strength behind statistics. They over-represent working-class crime,
impacting the validity.
Does not consider crime amongst successful people. These people do not veel strain. What about
white collar crime?
Subcultural Strain Theories
Albert Cohen (1971) - Status Frustration
-Certain groups in society experience more frustration over their lack of status than others. He focuses on
how the wc youth are denied status in society.
-They develop their own set of values in opposition to the mainstream value consensus (which has denied
them status). This is largely due to revenge on society.
-Status is gained in peer-groups through deviant behaviour such as joy riding, vandalising, fighting and
substance abuse. Thus creating an alternative status hierarchy.
Youths actually see failure as successful. Paul Willis = the w/c youths in Cohen’s study do not share
the same achievement goals as the m/c and in fact see failure as successful.
What about conformity? Most w/c individuals actually conform to school.
What about female delinquency? Cohen ignores this
He neglects the role of agencies of social control, people like the police have a role in the social
construction of delinquency.
Cloward & Ohlin - Working Class Delinquency
-This argument suggests that Cohen is over-generalising.
-They argue that although the w/c are likely to form deviant subcultures, different w/c groups will react
differently according to their particular social circumstances.
-In their view, the key reasons for different subcultural responses is not only unequal access to the legitimate
opportunity structure, but unequal access to illegitimate opportunity structures also.
-As such there are 3 main types of deviant subcultures:
Criminal subcultures
Provide youths with an apprenticeship in utilitarian crime (crime involving money). They arise only in
neighbourhoods with a longstanding, stable criminal culture with an established hierarchy of
professional adult crime.
Conflict subcultures
Arise in areas of high population turnover. This results in high levels of social disorganisation and
prevents a stable professional criminal networks developing. The only illegitimate opportunities available
are within loosely organised gangs. Violence here provides a release for young men’s frustrations and a
sense of status from winning ‘turf’ from rival gangs.
Retreatist subcultures
These subcultures consist of those who are considered ‘double failures’ - those who fail in both
legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structures. The major activities are drug use, burglary and
shoplifting (usually to find the drugs).
They focus too much on w/c crime and ignore the crimes of the wealthy.
, Miller (19162) - Working Class Concerns…
-Other subcultural strain theories claim that subcultures form and engage in deviance as a response to their
failure to achieve mainstream goals.
-But, Miller claimed that the w/c have their own independent subculture separate from mainstream culture.
-This subculture does not value success in the first place, so its members are not frustrated by failure.
They are more concerned by:
-Toughness = Miller said that people within lower class subcultures value toughness as an important trait;
however this can manifest itself in assault and violence.
-Smartness = this culture also values the ability to ‘outfox’ each other. This will often lead to people trying to con,
pickpocket, or steal from other people in ‘clever’ ways.
-Excitement = this culture constantly searches for excitement and thrills. This often means gambling, alcohol and
sexual adventures.
-Living out these concerns compensates for their boring lives at school or in the factor.
Matza (1964) - delinquency & ‘Drift’
-Although Matza adopts a functional approach to crime, he suggests that unlike other functionalist thinking,
deviants are no different to ‘normal’ people who respect value consensus within society.
-Matza simply suggests that sometimes people will ‘drift’ out of society’s value consensus but will ultimately
drift back in (suggesting they agree with value consensus deep down).
Merton, Cohen, Cloward & Ohlin Criticism
What about women? They all ignore women and victims of crime.
Too much focus on street crime. Marxists criticise them for ignoring state crime.
Not enough focus on labelling. Labelling theorists criticise them for ignoring why some social groups
are more likely to be labelled as deviant than others.
Recent Strain Theories
-Messner & Rosenfeld (2001): Institutional anomie theory- also focuses on the American Dream. They argue
that society's obsession with financial success and ‘winner takes all’ mentality exert pressure towards crime by
encouraging an ‘anomic’ environment.
For them, people are encouraged to adopt an ‘anything goes’ mentality in pursuit of wealth.
In societies based on free-market capitalism and lack of adequate welfare provision such as the USA, crime is
inevitable!
-Downes & Hansen (2006) = surveyed crime rates and welfare spending and found that in societies where there
were higher levels of welfare spending, there were lower levels of imprisonment.
-Savelsberg (1995) = found that there was a rapid rise in crime in post-communist societies in Eastern Europe.
This was attributed to the collective values of communism being replaced with new western capitalist goals of
individualist ‘money success’.
Marxism - Class, Power & Crime
-Marxists agree with labelling theorists that the law is enforced disproportionately against the w/c and that
we cannot therefore take the statistics at face value.
-But, they criticise them for ignoring the wider structure of capitalism within which law making, law
enforcement and offending ultimately take place
3 Main Elements for Marxists
-For Marxists, the structure of capitalist society explains crime. Their view has 3 main elements:
1. Criminogenic capitalism
2. The state and law making
3. Ideological functions of crime and law
Criminogenic Capitalism
Functionalism & Crime
The Nature of Society
-Society is based on mutual agreement and unity. Society is fair and meritocratic - everyone has the
possibility to succeed and be socially mobile - everyone wants to have high life chances.
-Durkheim highlights the fact that within a class based society some people are able to achieve more than
others. This is still useful because all of society’s roles get filled up (no matter how high / low they might be). This
is known as role allocation.
-Crime will always occur because meritocracy creates differences and inequality between individuals.
-Socialisation = instils the shared culture into its members. This helps to ensure that individuals internalise the
same norms and values.
-Social control = mechanism include rewards (or positive sanctions) for conformity, and punishments (or
negative sanctions) for deviance.
Inevitability of Crime
-Durkheim (1983) - “crime is normal... an integral part of all healthy societies.”
-Durkheim also argues that too much crime is not good for society.
-He argues that crime happens for several reasons:
1. Poor socialisation
2. In complex modern societies, where there is lots of diversity, subcultures emerge with their own values
and culture that can be considered as deviant by the rest of society.
The Positive Functions of Crime
Boundary maintenance
Durkheim: People's behaviour is governed by positive and negative sanctions. When people commit
crime they are punished. This reminds everyone about the ‘rights & wrongs’ and how people should
behave for the greater good of society.
The purpose of crime is to reinforce people's shared values, reaffirming social solidarity.
Ex. Patriotism post 9/11 and 7/7, reaction to Sarah Everard’s murder (vigils reaffirmed the idea that
violence against women is wrong), murder of Geogre Floyd (unified society to condemn racism).
Adaptation and change
Durkheim argues that all change in society starts with an act of deviance. He argues that individuals
with new views must not be stifled by the wright of social control. People must be able to express new
values and challenge existing norms. However, these challenges will be seen as an act of deviance in
the first instant.
Durkheim believed that either too much or too little time signalled that there was something wrong with
society.
Too much and society's bonds were going to be destroyed. Too little and society was too repressive,
stifling individual freedom and preventing change.
Ex. Women’s rights movement, civil rights movement, stonewall riots, poll tax riots 1990, student
protests 2010.
Safety valve
Cohen (1961) suggested that deviance allow people to ‘let off steam’ in a relatively harmless way. This
allows people to de-stress (and remain functional). Cohen used the example of prostitution as a release
that allowed for sexual expression.
Warning device
, Clinard (1974) proposed that when crime / deviance occurs it sends a message to us that society’s
social order is breaking down. This then prompts government / councils to do something about the
problem. Cohen links this to high truancy in schools.
Jobs
Crime created employment which is not only useful for individuals but is also good for families and
society as a whole.
-Remember, all of these factors relate to the reinforcement of value consensus, social solidarity and social
stability as these are the key ideas within functionalism.
Why Does Crime Occur In The First Place?
-Anomie & atrophy = when people experience inequality and barriers to their life chances they begin to
experience anomie (normlessness). As a result of this anomie they turn to crime / deviance in order to gain the
things they have been prevented from achieving.
-Anomie, and the resulting behaviour, breaks down social solidarity and weakens value consensus. This is
described as the atrophy (erosion) of society's norms and values. Atrophy is therefore dysfunctional if it occurs
on a large scale.
Durkheim is not specific in how much crime is needed for society to be functional. Equality he does
not state how much crime is detrimental to society.
Crime has not necessarily been created to create solidarity.
Crime does not always create solidarity. For example, what about the women that stay at home
through fear of being attacked?
However:
Some crimes do promote solidarity amongst communities. For example communities that come
together to condem a brutal attack.
Functionalism does provide a valuable way of showing us that not everything that is bad, is bad for
society.
Merton (1938) Strain Theory
-Merton sees anomie as a permanent feature of ‘The American Dream Society’.
-This was due to the fact that society (within its value consensus) puts pressure on people to achieve - society
presents us with cultural goals.
-Society also presents us with institutionalised means (socially approved / acceptable ways) of achieving these
cultural goals.
-If we are able to use institutionalised means to achieve our desired cultural goals we can conform to our
society’s value consensus and get along happily and functionally.
5 Responses to Anomie & Strain
-Conformity = people accept cultural goals and work hard to achieve them. Merton argues that this is a typical
response of most Americans but is arguably the most likely to be seen in the m/c.
-Innovation = people use new illegitimate means to achieve the goal of money and success (fraud and theft).
The lower a person's social class, the more pressure it is argued they have to innovate.
-Ritualism = people accept the cultural goals but have given up on trying to achieve them. However, they have
internalised the legitimate means and so they follow the rules for their own sake. Typical lower m/c behaviour in
dead end office jobs.
-Retreatists = people who reject both the goals and the legitimate means to achieve them. Merton called these
people vagrants and drop outs.
-Rebellion = people who reject the goals of society and create their own with the hope of instigating revolutionary
change. Ex. political rebels and hippies.
Does a consensus exist? Do we even have a consensus around means and goals?
, Too much focus on individual responses to anomie. This ignores how different groups respond. Ex.
subcultures.
Merton places too much strength behind statistics. They over-represent working-class crime,
impacting the validity.
Does not consider crime amongst successful people. These people do not veel strain. What about
white collar crime?
Subcultural Strain Theories
Albert Cohen (1971) - Status Frustration
-Certain groups in society experience more frustration over their lack of status than others. He focuses on
how the wc youth are denied status in society.
-They develop their own set of values in opposition to the mainstream value consensus (which has denied
them status). This is largely due to revenge on society.
-Status is gained in peer-groups through deviant behaviour such as joy riding, vandalising, fighting and
substance abuse. Thus creating an alternative status hierarchy.
Youths actually see failure as successful. Paul Willis = the w/c youths in Cohen’s study do not share
the same achievement goals as the m/c and in fact see failure as successful.
What about conformity? Most w/c individuals actually conform to school.
What about female delinquency? Cohen ignores this
He neglects the role of agencies of social control, people like the police have a role in the social
construction of delinquency.
Cloward & Ohlin - Working Class Delinquency
-This argument suggests that Cohen is over-generalising.
-They argue that although the w/c are likely to form deviant subcultures, different w/c groups will react
differently according to their particular social circumstances.
-In their view, the key reasons for different subcultural responses is not only unequal access to the legitimate
opportunity structure, but unequal access to illegitimate opportunity structures also.
-As such there are 3 main types of deviant subcultures:
Criminal subcultures
Provide youths with an apprenticeship in utilitarian crime (crime involving money). They arise only in
neighbourhoods with a longstanding, stable criminal culture with an established hierarchy of
professional adult crime.
Conflict subcultures
Arise in areas of high population turnover. This results in high levels of social disorganisation and
prevents a stable professional criminal networks developing. The only illegitimate opportunities available
are within loosely organised gangs. Violence here provides a release for young men’s frustrations and a
sense of status from winning ‘turf’ from rival gangs.
Retreatist subcultures
These subcultures consist of those who are considered ‘double failures’ - those who fail in both
legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structures. The major activities are drug use, burglary and
shoplifting (usually to find the drugs).
They focus too much on w/c crime and ignore the crimes of the wealthy.
, Miller (19162) - Working Class Concerns…
-Other subcultural strain theories claim that subcultures form and engage in deviance as a response to their
failure to achieve mainstream goals.
-But, Miller claimed that the w/c have their own independent subculture separate from mainstream culture.
-This subculture does not value success in the first place, so its members are not frustrated by failure.
They are more concerned by:
-Toughness = Miller said that people within lower class subcultures value toughness as an important trait;
however this can manifest itself in assault and violence.
-Smartness = this culture also values the ability to ‘outfox’ each other. This will often lead to people trying to con,
pickpocket, or steal from other people in ‘clever’ ways.
-Excitement = this culture constantly searches for excitement and thrills. This often means gambling, alcohol and
sexual adventures.
-Living out these concerns compensates for their boring lives at school or in the factor.
Matza (1964) - delinquency & ‘Drift’
-Although Matza adopts a functional approach to crime, he suggests that unlike other functionalist thinking,
deviants are no different to ‘normal’ people who respect value consensus within society.
-Matza simply suggests that sometimes people will ‘drift’ out of society’s value consensus but will ultimately
drift back in (suggesting they agree with value consensus deep down).
Merton, Cohen, Cloward & Ohlin Criticism
What about women? They all ignore women and victims of crime.
Too much focus on street crime. Marxists criticise them for ignoring state crime.
Not enough focus on labelling. Labelling theorists criticise them for ignoring why some social groups
are more likely to be labelled as deviant than others.
Recent Strain Theories
-Messner & Rosenfeld (2001): Institutional anomie theory- also focuses on the American Dream. They argue
that society's obsession with financial success and ‘winner takes all’ mentality exert pressure towards crime by
encouraging an ‘anomic’ environment.
For them, people are encouraged to adopt an ‘anything goes’ mentality in pursuit of wealth.
In societies based on free-market capitalism and lack of adequate welfare provision such as the USA, crime is
inevitable!
-Downes & Hansen (2006) = surveyed crime rates and welfare spending and found that in societies where there
were higher levels of welfare spending, there were lower levels of imprisonment.
-Savelsberg (1995) = found that there was a rapid rise in crime in post-communist societies in Eastern Europe.
This was attributed to the collective values of communism being replaced with new western capitalist goals of
individualist ‘money success’.
Marxism - Class, Power & Crime
-Marxists agree with labelling theorists that the law is enforced disproportionately against the w/c and that
we cannot therefore take the statistics at face value.
-But, they criticise them for ignoring the wider structure of capitalism within which law making, law
enforcement and offending ultimately take place
3 Main Elements for Marxists
-For Marxists, the structure of capitalist society explains crime. Their view has 3 main elements:
1. Criminogenic capitalism
2. The state and law making
3. Ideological functions of crime and law
Criminogenic Capitalism
