However in reality, poverty and discrimination block paths adding the pressure to achieve ‘the dream’ through illegitimate means. Merton identified 5 ways in which individuals adapt to strain/threat of anomie; conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion. These all focus on ‘the goal’ and how they will achieve success depending on the class/subculture they belong in. In agreement with Merton, A.K Cohen suggests it is harder for lower class to achieve success goals legitimately. Merton’s approach explains how both normal and deviant behaviour can stem from the same goals, however it clearly ignores the power of the ruling class to make and enforce laws, and is too deterministic as not all working class people deviate.
The main objective of criminology is to find possible causes of crime and deviance; which will help in the decline of crime within society. Criminologists understand that there is a difference between deviance and crime; however, deviance is the beginning stages to a life of crime. Deviance is defined as the
Using material from item A and elsewhere, assess the usefulness of functionalist approaches in explaining crime. (21 marks) “Crimes are those actions deemed so disturbing to citizens of disruptive to society as to justify state intervention.” Pease (2002). Crime is any act which breaks the laws of society. For example, murder or rape. Deviance, on the other hand, is behaviour which moves away from conventional norms and values such as burping and farting in public.
The first explorations of deviance and crime was done by Durkheim who identified two different sides of crime for the functioning of society: positive and negative. According to Durkheim, crime was necessary for society. He argued that the basis of society was a set of shared values that guide our actions, which he named the collective conscience. The collective conscience provides boundarie which distinguishes between actions that are acceptable and those that are not. The problem for any society is that these boundaries are unclear and change over time.
Assess Functionalist Approaches to the Study of Crime and Deviance Functionalists such as Emile Durkheim, Robert Merton and Albert Cohen all attempt to explain the nature and extent of crime in today’s society. In essence, Functionalists argue that society is based on value consensus and social solidarity which is sustained via socialisation and social control mechanisms within society. Emile Durkheim states that whilst crime is obviously a social negative with the ultimate power to destabilise society, he stands by the claim that crime is inevitable, universal, and integral to a healthy society and even having positive benefits. He claims that crime occurs in society due to two fundamental reasons; firstly, not everyone is effectively socialised to the same norms and values which leads to people being prone to deviation and secondly, due to the diverse lifestyle and subcultures in contemporary society, subcultures act out different norms and values and what members of that subculture regard as normal, mainstream culture may deem it as deviancy. The Functionalist approach to the study of crime states that crime has two positive functions for society.
What is anomie and what are the conditions that cause anomie? Anomie is a term in which may be describe as a personal condition resulting from a lack of norms. It also can be referred to the fairly of society to regulate goals of human desire. Anomie can also be observed through different effects that can lead to criminal and deviant behavior such as suicide. Anomic theory is considered a sociological theory that tries to explain the pattern of crimes through macro level of analysis.
Labelling theory was developed by Howard Becker, and is primarily concerned with societal reaction to crime; thus straying away from the deviant act and instead looking more closely at how and why certain people become defined as deviant. It suggests deviance is not an inherent act, but instead the result of people negatively labelling those that deviate from the norm. Edwin Lemert put forward a typology of deviance, extremely relevant in terms of highlighting labelling theory. He suggested Primary Deviance was a simple deviant act, not as a result of a label, but instead may result in a label. And Secondary Deviance, he suggested, was the idea criminality is a response to being labelled as deviant.
Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess the usefulness of labelling theory in explaining crime and deviance (21 marks) As stated in item A the labelling theory ‘explains how actions become labelled as criminal or deviant in society’. This theory has provided many sociologists with a basis to suggest reasons as to why people commit crime in society. These sociologists take a micro-approach to crime and deviance and look at individuals rather than make generalisations based on society as a whole. Becker wrote the book ‘The Outsiders’ which sort to provide an explanation as to why not everyone is labelled as a criminal even if they have committed crime. He proposed three reasons as to why; their interactions with the police, their appearance, and the circumstances of their arrest.
Unit 2: Theories and Perspectives in Criminology – Explaining Crime and Deviance To deviate from something means to stray from an accepted path and to begin something that is not planned, especially in a way that causes problems for others and is totally unaccepted in society, many sociological definitions of deviance simply elaborate upon this idea. In other words, we would often find that deviant behaviour consists of acts which do not follow the expectations and norms of a particular social group. Deviant behaviour could be positively sanctioned (rewarded), negatively sanctioned (punished) or just accepted without punishment or reward. (Holborn, 2008) In terms of the above definition of deviance, thousands of soldiers at war who risk their lives above and beyond the normal call of duty could be termed deviant, as may physicists who develop a new theory after breaking the rules of their discipline. Their deviance may be positively sanctioned: a physicist may be rewarded with a Noble Prize, and a soldier with a medal.
Social -control theory argues that deviance is largely a matter of failed social controls. Merton believes that the strain between the norms that define socially appropriate goals and the norms that specify socially appropriate means for attaining these goals creates an atmosphere in which deviance will appear. Travis Hirschi says that persons with a weakened bond to their social group are likely to become deviant. Differential association and cultural transmission theories propose that deviance is a natural outgrowth of a person's contacts during socialization and can be a part of a subculture that can be transmitted indefinitely. Conflict theory traces the origin of criminal behavior to class conflict between the powerful and the weak and sees criminals as reasonable individuals forced by circumstance to break laws in order to regain some of what has been taken from them or denied to them by an exploitative system.