Functionalist Theories of Crime

9 Key excerpts on "Functionalist Theories of Crime"

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  eBook - PDF

  Sociology

  The Essentials

  • Margaret L. Andersen; Howard F. Taylor, Margaret Andersen, Howard Taylor(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  Each perspective traces criminal behavior to social condi-tions rather than only to the intrinsic tendencies or personalities of individuals. ◆ Table 7.2 Sociological Theories of Crime Functionalist Theory Symbolic Interaction Theory Conflict Theory Societies require a certain level of crime in order to clarify norms. Crime is behavior that is learned through social interaction. The lower the social class, the more the individual is forced into criminality. Crime results from social structural strains (such as class inequality) within society. Labeling criminals and stigmatizing them tends to reinforce rather than deter crime. Inequalities in society by race, class, gender, and other forces tend to produce criminal activity. Crime may be functional to society, thus difficult to eradicate. Institutions with the power to label, such as prisons, actually produce rather than lessen crime. Reducing social inequality in society is likely to reduce crime. © Cengage Learning Some deviance develops in deviant communities, such as the neo-Nazis/“skinheads” shown marching here. Such right-wing extremist groups have increased significantly in recent years, as monitored by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Jim West/Alamy Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 160 CHAPTER 7 Measuring Crime: How Much Is There? Is crime increasing in the United States? One would cer-tainly think so from watching the media. Images of vio-lent crime abound and give the impression that crime is a constant threat and is on the rise.

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  SOC

  • Nijole Benokraitis(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  Contempo- rary examples are terrorists and U.S. militia groups that oppose the federal government (see Chapter 3). 7-3c Critical Evaluation A major contribution of functionalism is showing how social structure, not just individual attitudes and behavior, produces or reinforces deviance and crime. Functionalist theories also have weaknesses: (1) The concepts of anomie and strain theory are limited because they overlook the fact that not everyone in the United States embraces financial success as a major goal in life; (2) the theories don’t explain why women’s crime rates are much lower than men’s, especially because women generally have fewer legitimate opportunities for financial success than men; (3) why crime rates have declined since 2000 despite much poverty and unemployment; and (4) why people commit some crimes (setting fires just for kicks or murdering an intimate partner) that have nothing to do with being successful (Anderson and Dyson, 2002; Williams and McShane, 2004). The most consistent criticism is that functionalism typically focuses on lower-class deviance and crime. Conflict theorists have filled this gap by examining middle- and upper-class crime. 7-4 CONFLICT PERSPECTIVES ON DEVIANCE Functionalists ask, “Why do some people commit crimes and others don’t?” Most conflict theorists ask, “Why are some acts defined as criminal while others aren’t?” (Akers, 1997). 7-4a Capitalism and Social Inequality For conflict theorists, there’s a strong association between capitalism, social inequality, and deviance. People and groups with economic and political power view deviance as any behavior that threatens their own interests (Vold, 1958; Turk, 1969, 1976; Kraska, 2004). As a result, the mass media, owned by the affluent, routinely focus on “street crimes” rather than “suite crimes.” The United States, like many other countries, is a capitalist economy based on the private ownership of property (see Chapter 11).

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  An Introduction to Criminology and Criminal Justice

  • Chris Crowther-Dowey(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Red Globe Press

    (Publisher)

  Perhaps the most important characteristic of the type of sociological explanations mentioned above is that they are not particularly concerned with the individual human subject. Rather they are interested in the organization and development of society as a whole. To apply this argument to crime, they are not interested in the indi-vidual criminal in separation from broader patterns of crime, delinquency and deviance. Moreover, the distribution of crime is explained in relation to wider social, economic and cultural structures. Many sociologists are interested in examining the changes occurring in these structures, and their bearing on the occurrence of crime, especially property offences. Many sociological accounts are influenced by a positivist understanding of human behaviour, of the kind outlined in the previous chapter. However, in contrast to Chapter 11, here we consider whether crime is caused by forces external to the individual, rather than the factors inherent to individuals such as their psychological or biological make-up. The positivist influence is also demonstrated by the commitment to investigating crime by drawing on a range of qualitative and quantitative methods (see Chapter 4). Perhaps the most influential concept in sociological variants of criminological theory, at least in the early days of the discipline, is anomie. 294 Theories of Crime Anomie As you may already know, Emile Durkheim (1970, 1984) is seen as the founder of the discipline of sociology. He is perhaps best known for his apparently bizarre claim that crime is not only a ‘normal’ and acceptable feature of everyday society, it is also actually functional. How can this be the case? To respond to this question it is necessary to briefly rehearse the key assumptions figuring in Durkheim’s science of society. Durkheim is an example of a structural functionalist .

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  Criminology in Brief

  Understanding Crime and Criminal Justice

  • Robert Heiner(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  According to the critical criminologists, the real “enemy” of both the lower and middle classes is the disproportionate influence that elite interests have over their living conditions. But the fear and distrust of the poor propagated by the media prevents the oppressed classes from realizing their common interests and uniting to fight for a fairer and more just society.

  Conflict theory is elaborated by Richard Quinney later in this chapter, and it is reflected in much of the discussion of criminal justice throughout this book.

  Emile Durkheim (functionalism)

  Emile Durkheim became the most influential proponent of a branch of sociology called functionalism. Before Durkheim, the British philosopher Herbert Spencer compared society to a living organism, a system of interdependent parts, evolving and struggling to maintain stability. Durkheim did not take the living organism analogy literally, but he did make extensive use of the logic of that analogy; that is, in order to understand a given social phenomenon, we must understand how it contributes to the functioning of society as a whole. Just as with the human body, one cannot understand the spleen unless one understands how it functions for the body as a whole. If we do not understand what the liver does for body, we do not understand the liver.

  In The Rules of the Sociological Method5 (1895), Durkheim applied this logic to crime. He noted that since crime occurs in all societies throughout the world and throughout history, it cannot be seen as pathological, or as a sign that there is something wrong with a society. Since crime is universal, it must contribute to the well-being of society. He argued that crime contributes to the essential function of social cohesion

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  The Criminology and Criminal Justice Companion

  • Susan Robinson, Tracy Cussen(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Bloomsbury Academic

    (Publisher)

  By doing this, they are able to drift backwards and forwards between law-breaking and conventional behaviours (Matza 1964 ). They point out that criminals, including juvenile delinquents, are not constantly engaged in criminal activity but have times of more conventional activity such as attending school, going to work, religious observance and social gatherings. The assumptions that underpin this theoretical perspective are that criminals sometimes voice guilt over their criminal activity; that they sometimes show respect and admiration for honest, law abiding citizens; they define who they can victimise; and they are not immune to the demands of social conformity. According to neutralisation theory, criminals develop a distinct 49 Exploring Theories of Crime Structural Theories of Crime Structural theories focus on social origins of crime and the way in which the processes and institutions within society might contribute to crime. These theories tend to have a macro view of the societal influences that may create pressure and tension for individuals or which may present barriers to individuals that prevent them from succeeding. Strain theory is one of the better known of this group. Strain Theory Strain theory has its origins in the functionalist school of thought and is the work of Robert Merton ( 1938 ), arising from his revision of Durkheim’s theory of anomie. It is a theory that focuses on the socio-economic structures of society and in particular the ways in which members of the lower socio-economic groups are obstructed from successful participation in the mainstream society. Robert Merton Merton ( 1938 ) viewed the causation of crime as being rooted in an unjust social structure where success was determined by an accident interactions around us. Social constructionists believe that reality is not only observable but is also formed and influenced by the actors who observe it.

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  An Introduction to Crime and Crime Causation

  • Robert C. Winters, Julie L. Globokar, Cliff Roberson(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  87 chapter five Social structures as a cause of crime Chapter objectives After studying this chapter, the reader should be able to • Explain how the social structural approach differs from other criminological perspectives • Identify the main contributions of the social structural perspective • Discuss the relationship of urban growth to criminality • Explain the concept of social disorganization • Describe broken windows theory • Compare and contrast the social disorganization, strain, and subcultural traditions • Describe how American cities have changed since the early 1900s, and its relevance for understanding crime • Identify weaknesses of the social structural perspective Introduction This chapter presents social structural explanations of crime. It has long been recognized that crime is not evenly distributed across space, with studies dating back to the early 1800s observing higher rates of crime in cities compared to rural areas. 1 The theories in this chapter attempt to explain that spatial pattern by looking to the dynamics of social status, relationships, and social institutions such as the economy and family. The assumptions of social structural theorists include the following: • Crime is a normal response to certain social conditions. • Social problems tend to cluster among structurally disadvantaged populations, and particularly within areas of concentrated disadvantage. • Crime is most likely to occur in neighborhoods with deteriorated housing, low rates of home ownership, high rates of residential mobility, and low collective efficacy. • Race- and class-based social exclusion perpetuates disadvantage and, by extension, encourages crime. • Crime can be reduced through neighborhood-level interventions and changes in the overall social structure. Structural disadvantage can lead to crime via three mechanisms, which form the subcat-egories of this perspective.

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  Deviance and Deviants

  A Sociological Approach

  • William E. Thompson, Jennifer C. Gibbs(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Wiley-Blackwell

    (Publisher)

  People are born into a society that consists of social institutions that have to a large extent already defined acceptable and unacceptable behaviors. Although individual actors can and do construct their own social realities by defining and redefining values, norms, and sanctions, social change often comes slowly and individual definitions of the situation that conflict with dominant cultural ideologies often amount to trouble for the dissenter. Critics of the interactionist perspective also assert that while social learning theories help explain how somebody becomes deviant, labeling and neutralization theories focus on how people react to being viewed as deviant with little or no explanation for the behavior that elicited the deviant label that must be neutralized after the fact. A fourth sociological perspective contends that interactionist theories as well as functionalist and conflict theories all suffer from the same weakness: they are theories postulated by men as a result of research on men, and then are generalized to both men and women. A Feminist Perspective on Deviance The feminist perspective studies, analyzes, and explains conformity and deviance from a gender‐focused viewpoint. This eclectic approach, which is used by both women and men, emphasizes the importance of gender for understanding society and all forms of human behavior (Smith, 1987). Feminist theories incorporate elements of functionalism, conflict, and interactionist theories maintaining that at the macro‐level, gender is incorporated into and reflected in the basic social structure of society. Additionally, at the macro‐level, feminist theorists point out how traditional sex roles and cultural attitudes regarding gender serve to protect and preserve a status quo of patriarchy in virtually all aspects of society, especially in the institutions of government, economy, family, education, and religion

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  Criminological Theories

  Introduction and Evaluation

  • Ronald L. Akers(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Friedman, 1975 ), neither has many proponents today. However, functionalist and consensus notions have not been dropped entirely. They have been recast and retained in pluralistic conflict theory.

  Conflict Theory of Law and Criminal Justice

  Conflict theory began to challenge consensus and functional models in sociology in the 1950s (Dahrendorf, 1959). Although discussions of conflict theory often refer to Karl Marx, this approach is more directly traced back to the European sociologist Georg Simmel (1950) , who viewed conflict as a fundamental social process. Its chief proponent in criminology at that time was George Vold who, in his classic Theoretical Criminology (1958), proposed that group conflict explains not only criminal law and justice but criminal behavior as well.

  [T]he whole political process of law making, law breaking, and law enforcement becomes a direct reflection of deep-seated and fundamental conflicts between interest groups and their more general struggles for the control of the police power of the state. Those who produce legislative majorities win control over the police power and dominate the policies that decide who is likely to be involved in violation of the law. (Vold, 1958 :208–209)

  Thomas Bernard has maintained Void’s statement of the theory with some extensions and expansions in his revisions of Void’s book (Vold and Bernard, 1986 ).1

  In the 1960s, several criminologists, most notably Richard Quinney (1964 ; 1969 ; 1970 ), William Chambliss (1964 : 1969), and Austin Turk (1964 ; 1966 ; 1969a) further developed the conflict approach and placed it at the forefront of criminological theory. They argued that criminological theory had for too long focused almost exclusively on explaining criminal behavior, and that theoretical attention needed to be shifted toward the explanation of criminal law. Turk (1964 :1969a) maintained that the central task of criminological theory was not to untangle the causes of criminal behavior but to explain criminality, the process by which certain behavior and individuals are formally designated as criminal. Chambliss (1975:i-ii) agreed: “Instead of asking, ‘Why do some people commit crimes and others do not?’ we ask, ‘Why are some acts defined as criminal while others are not?’ “Conflict theory answers that question: both the formulation and enforcement of the law serve the interests of the more powerful groups in society.2

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  Criminology

  A Reader

  • Yvonne Jewkes, Gayle Letherby, Yvonne Jewkes, Gayle Letherby(Authors)
  • 2002(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  This way of thinking about and explaining the patterning of criminal behav-iour (as it was officially recorded) was one of the first to consider the social origins of criminality as opposed to the individual roots of crime. As a result, it not only influenced subsequent generations of sociologically informed crimi-nological work, but also carries with it clear policy implications. In theoretical terms, the concept of social disorganization led later theorists to work in dif-ferent ways with the interaction between social structure and the social production of norms and values. In policy terms, it has led to a focus on how to reorganize socially disorganized communities, to understanding the ways in which the environment might contribute to crime (designing out crime), and to a concern with how general neighbourhood decline (rising incivilities) might contribute to the crime career of a community, to name several recurring and contemporarily relevant policy themes. It is clear that the focus on the way in which social conditions produce social pathology is a common thread between the social ecologists and those who took up the ideas of strain theory. Strain Theory Strain theory emanates primarily from the work of Robert Merton (1938, 1968). His theoretical work was concerned more with the way in which the tensions between the legitimate and illegitimate means of acceding to the norms and val-ues of a particular society resulted in deviant (rather than just criminal) behaviour. The influence of these ideas on criminology have been profound. Merton’s ideas can be situated within the theoretical tradition of functionalism. Largely informed by the work of Émile Durkheim and Talcott Parsons, functionalism views society rather like a finely tuned biological organism. In order for society to work effec-tively its component parts must be in balance and there must be some consensus or agreement concerning the appropriateness of that balance.

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