functionalist (SOCIOLOGICAL) theories

• mertons strain theory:

  • KEY IDEA = crime is the result of unequal access to society's goal of wealth
  • BLOCKED OPPOURTUNITIES = not all have equal chance to achieve wealth. this creates a strain on the working class as they cannot access wealth legitametley
• four deviant adaptions to strain (Merton)

  1. innovation = accepts the goal but finds an illegal way to achieve this. utilitarian crimes
  2. ritualism = give up striding for success so end up in dead end job
  3. retreatism = reject goal and means to achieve. drop outs- drunks, vagrants
  4. rebellion = reject goals and means replacing them with new ones in order to change society. political radicals and alternative cultures such as hippies
• strengths of Merton:

  • shows how normal and deviant behaviour can arise from the same goals
  • explains why most crime in statistic is property crime and why working class crime rates are higher
• limitations of Merton:

  • ignores crime of wealthy
  • only sees deviance as an individual response
  • focuses on utilitarian crime only
• strengths of Durkheim:

  • first to recognise that crime can have positive functions for society
• limitations of Durkheim:

  • crime is not functional for all - victims
  • does not suggest what the right amount of crime is for society to function properly
• Durkheim functionalist theory:

  • KEY IDEA = crime is the inevitable result of inadequate socialisation
• Durkheim crime 4 important functions:

  1. boundary maintenance: crime unites society members against wrongdoers, reinforcing the boundary between right and wrong
  2. social change = for society to progress, individuals with new ideas must challenge existing norms and values. this is deviance at first
  3. SAFETY VALVE DAVE = for example - prostitution acts to release men's sexual frustrations without threatening nuclear family
  4. warning light = deviance indicates that society isn't functioning properly so action can be taken to fix it