functionalism

• Merton strain theory:

  • Clear goals in any social structure valued by society
  • Overemphasis on goals leads to crime
  • Anomie results in a breakdown of value consensus and strain
  • White working-class males more likely to commit crimes and have the most strain
  • Crime leads to five modes of adaptations, including retreatism and rebellion
• Cohen status frustration:

  • Teenage boys desire status
  • Working class boys aware of mainstream values but feel inferior to middle-class boys
  • Status frustration leads to deviant subculture where values are inverted
  • Working class boys in delinquent subcultures gain high status among peers
• Cloward & Ohlin, illegitimate opportunity structure:

  • Working class males experience blocked opportunities to access valued goals
  • Turn to illegitimate means such as crime and deviance
  • Three ways of using illegitimate means: criminal, conflict, or retreatist cultures
  • Hierarchy of opportunities for deviance in criminal subculture, conflict subcultures, and retreatists
• Miller, focal concerns:

  • Working class have their own focal concerns
  • Not everyone in society shares the same value consensus
  • Working class boys value being in trouble and acting tough and streetwise
  • Links to Harding’s concept of street capital and how crime is the norm for some people depending on their class