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Crime + Deviance - Sociology - Coggle Diagram
Crime + Deviance - Sociology
Functionalism
Durkheim's ideas
Crime and deviance can threaten social order
This can be limited through areas of SOCIAL CONTROL, FORMAL CONTROL (e.g prisons and courts), and INFORMAL CONTROL, these can temporarily restore order
Traditional societies
Held together by large / religiously based "CONSCIENCE COLLECTIVE" / value consensus which often discouraged criminal and deviant behaviour
Communities were smaller, made informal social control more effective
Increased modern values and individualisation destroyed these values and introduced crime for a variety of reasons
CRIME IS AN INEVITABLE AND NORMAL ASPECT OF SOCIAL LIFE
Idea of the "society of saints"
Population of perfect people, no crime, but deviance still exists regardless
Deviance would still somewhat exist as the smallest slip in behaviour would be considered deviance to the rest of the population
This form of behaviour (rude and negative) might be criminalised due to the standards set by the society's members
Crime is functional?
Crime only becomes harmful to society when its rate is unusually high or low
All social change begins with some form of deviance
THIS CHANGE CAN OCCUR WHEN YESTERDAY'S DEVIANCE BECOMES TODAY'S NORMALITY
E.g Nelson Mandela in apartheid South Africa
Punishment is functional
Punishment maintains the collective sentiments at their necessary level of strength
Criminal trial helps to remind the population of what crime is deemed acceptable and unacceptable
If punishment did not exist then the collective sentiments would lose their power to control people's behaviour, and crime rates would be too high
Robert Merton's Functionalism
Anomie
Used to explain crime in American society
This occurred when people found themselves in a situation where they realise they cannot achieve the common goals of American society through legitimate means
Experience strain to find a solution to their problem - STRAIN THEORY
American dream and the myth of meritocracy
Anyone can be successful in the U.S if they work hard and determined, but this is not real as different people exist in different positions within the class structure, meaning they do not have the same opportunities as those who are above them
Once realising this, this can generate deviance
Adaptations to strain
Conformity
Members of society conform to both the success goals set by society and the ways of achieving these goals
Innovation
Reject normal ways of achieving the commonly set societal goals, but take into consideration the presence of these goals within society
Ritualism
Reject commonly accepted success goals
Retreatism
Strongly internalised cultural goals and the ways to achieving these goals, but do not have a way of doing these.
"drop out" of society
Rebellion
Rejection of both the success goals and ways of achieving these goals
Attempt to create a new society entirely
Savelsburg
Evidence to support Merton's idea regarding Strain Theory
Helps to explain the rapid rises in the crime rate in Poland, had its first free elections in 1989 (following Communist Poland), and crime rate increased by 69%.
Which emphasised the communist culture which was present
Cohen "status frustration"