Functionalists theories of crime and deviance.

1. The normative approach

2. Functionalism provides a normative definition of crime and deviance.

3. It presents an image of society in which exist shared norms and values. The deviant is the person who breaks these shared norms and values.

4. Fundamental to the functionalist philosophy is the idea that society is underpinned by consensus.

5. Albert Cohen

6. The Education system socialises all of its members with the cultural goal of achieving exam success.

7. The Education system “labels” those who do not achieve the cultural goals as failures. Young people have a “looking glass self” - they internalise the feelings of inferiority and failure, “repressing” those feelings into their unconscious - leading to a “reaction formation”. All people, particularly young people seek status in their own eyes and in the eyes of others, particularly significant others. Denied status through the official status channels, Cohen argued they will established subcultures where they can achieve status through alternative status channels.

8. The delinquent gang can be one such alternative status channel. The delinquent gang may now turn the values of the school and the education system on its head. What is good in the teachers’ eyes becomes bad in their eyes, and what is bad in the teachers’ eyes become good in their eyes. This is a “reactive” subculture which overturns the dominant middle class values of the school and wider society. Even though outwardly the gang rejects the norms and values of the dominant middle class culture, they have internalised it from birth.

9. Cloward & Ohlin

10. They argued Merton had failed to appreciate the illegitimate opportunity structure- a parallel structure to the legal one. This meant for some individuals in society a regualr illegal career was available with recognised illegal means of obtaining societies goals.

11. -eg Hobbs (1998) Bad Business interviewed successful proffessionsal criminals and demonstrated how it is possible to have a career in crimes given the right connections and ‘qualities’.

12. (Transformation into an industrialised Society)

13. Saw crime as a problem of moderninity

14. Was a French sociologist, social psychologist and philosopher. He formally established the academic discipline

15. Emile Durkheim

16. Robert Merton

17. Robert King Merton was an American sociologist. He spent most of his career teaching at Columbia University, where he attained the rank of University Professor.

18. regarded the concept of 'anomie' as used by Durkheim as too vague, so he developed its meaning.

19. But he recognised that not everyone has the same opportunity to share these goals and values.

20. He altered anomie to mean a society where there is a disjunction between goals and the means of achieving them

21. Merton argued that all societies met their members certain goals and at the same time set out socially approved ways of achieving these goals. He was aware that not everyone shared the same goals-he noticed goals were linked to a persons position in the social structure. Those lower down had restricted goals. The system worked well as long as there was a chance that the majority of people could achieve their goals. However if the majority of people were unable to reach their goals then they become disenchanted with society and sought out an alternative (often deviant) ways of behaving.

22. Travis Hirschi

23. Another key sociologist to be influenced by Emile Durkheim and the concept of anomie is Travis Hirsch

24. He asks the question: why don't more people commit crime than they do?

25. To answer this, he argues, we need to understand what forces maintain conformity for most people in society. Rather than the factors that drive a minority into deviant behaviour.