Critically evaluate the various sociological theories of crime and deviance including: Functionalist, Marxist, Labelling and Subcultural.

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Kate Attreed        

Critically evaluate the various sociological theories of crime and deviance including: Functionalist, Marxist, Labelling and Subcultural.

Deviance can be described as: “Nonconformity with existing/traditional social norms. This nonconformity is often said to be pathological when it challenges power and privilege; yet it is said to be indicative of innovation or creativity when the gatekeepers of morality approve it. A loaded term, deviancy is a negative asset when the environment is stable but can be a positive asset to a society when the environment is irreversibly changing.” Each perspective asks different questions and focuses on different issues regarding crime and deviance. They have different ideas about the causes of crime.

Subcultural theories on crime and deviance were developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s from the works of Albert Cohen(1955) and Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin(1960). They suggested that people react to forces ‘external’ to them, this leads them to behave in certain ways. Their behaviour is determined by social causes. Criminals behave differently from non-criminals. Subcultural theorists have attempted to seek the causes of these differences, they claim to have identified malfunctions in the social order. These malfunctions are seen to be rectifiable by different types of social engineering e.g. Social reform, social welfare and education. Crimes are ‘social facts’ and therefore must have ‘social causes’. Criminals are not seen as ‘abnormal’ individuals by subcultural theorists, but as social actors influenced by social causes.

Statistics have indicated that criminals are mostly male, adolescent, working class and urban living. An idea inspired by Durkhiem (1952) suggested that this is a ‘social condition where norms guiding conduct break down leaving individuals without social constraint’.

Crime and Deviance is a product of an imbalance in society’s goals an opportunity structures. Hard work and effort should be rewarded with status and material wealth. Some social groups (especially working class males) find that this is not the case. Working class male youths see images of success in the media and have high aspirations, which they are unable to reach. The opportunity structures are not in place for them. Socialisation with friends and family leave them unprepared for school and college, which is basically a middle class environment. They have come to terms with this by forming subcultures. As a group they look for solutions to their frustration.

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Delinquents have withdrawn their support from established norms and have invested officially forbidden norms of conduct with a claim to legitimacy in the light of their special situation

[Cloward and Ohlin, 1960]

Members of subcultures reject conventional values, they do not succeed in school or college, but they are good at things that their subculture values.

A criticism of this view is that it regards everyone as having the same goals and aspirations. A good career with financial success is not everybody’s aim. Walter B Miller (1962) suggested that crime is the result of normal working class values. The concerns ...

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