Functionalist Views on Crime

• Durkheim

  Views crime positively

  It is inevitable and functional

  However too much creates ANOMIE
• Merton

  Many societies suffer from ANOMIE because socially approved goals are not met

  Conformist

  Retreatism

  Rebel

  Ritualist

  Innovator
• Cohen

  Status frustration

  Working class youths face blocked opportunities and reject the mainstream
• Cloward + Ohlin

  Developed and improved Cohen's theory.

  Suggests there are different deivant subcultures , not just one as Cohen suggests.

  Agrees with status frustration BUT argues that the subcultures are criminal, conflict, and retreatism
• Morrison :)

  New Right Researcher:

  The underclass are faced with blocked opportunities due to social structure
• Messner and Rosenfield :)

  High crime rates are inevitable in societies based on free market capitalism. As they usually lacked adequate welfare provision.
• Downes + Hanson :)

  Conducted a study of 18 countries. Found a correlation that countries with higher welfare spending had lower rates of imprisonment
• Empey :(

  Many juveniles belong to more than one type of subculture.
• Miller :(

  Control Theorist:

  Deviant subcultures do not develop as a reaction to strain or status frustration, instead they emerge out of working class culture that values goals such as 'toughness' and 'excitement'
• Matza :(

  Phenomenologist

  Individuals drift in and out of delinquency