What are the functionalist perspectives on crime and deviance? Answered by Mia S. Need help with Sociology? One to one online tuition can be a great way to brush up on your Sociology knowledge. Answered by Raneam M. Additionally, an actor can accept social values but use deviant means to realize them. If you recall, social strain theory develops a typology of deviance in which an individual can deviate on two planes. An individual can be deviant by refusing to accept social norms or an individual can deviate by accepting social norms but using deviant means to achieve their realization.
In the context of the U. In this work, they noted that the individuals who achieved social norms by deviant means frequently operated from within institutions that, similarly to those operating in normative institutions, had rules of behavior.
A subculture is a group of people with a culture that differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong. Subcultures create a stacking or layering effect within a larger cultural context.
While a pickpocket may deviate from American social norms, he adheres to social norms of a smaller group of individuals who identify as American pickpockets. Cowan and Ohlin asserted that subcultures have rules of their own. Illegitimate opportunity structures are the rules that operate within deviant subcultures. Cowan and Ohlin emphasized how the structures of these deviant subcultures paralleled the rules and operations of more socially acceptable institutions.
Goths : Goths are an example of a subculture: A group of people with a culture that differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong. Cowan and Ohlin used juvenile delinquency as a case study to explore this theory of illegitimate opportunity structures.
In a criminal subculture, youth learn to use crime for material gain. This subculture usually forms in areas where there is an established organization of adult crime that provides an illegitimate opportunity structure for youths to learn how to behave criminally for material success.
In a conflict subculture, youth learn to form gangs as a way to express frustration about the lack of normative opportunity structures in their neighborhood. New initiates into the gang will learn how to engage in conflict or gang activities to express frustrations by watching gang leadership.
Thus, gangs become a subculture of their own, in contradistinction to the normative, peaceful model of youth behavior. Finally, in a retreatist subculture youth learn to reject both legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structures.
Criminal and conflict subcultures demonstrate that individuals can reject the normative means of the culture at large and still find a place within a smaller deviant subculture.
The retreatist subculture is the exception that proves the rule of illegitimate opportunity structures. The extreme deviance and isolation of individuals affiliated with a retreatist subculture demonstrate that others who engage in deviant behavior are able to find a subculture to which to subscribe. Privacy Policy. Skip to main content. Deviance, Social Control, and Crime. Search for:. The Functionalist Perspective on Deviance. The Functionalist Perspective on Deviance Functionalism claims that deviance help to create social stability by presenting explanations of non-normative and normative behaviors.
As you recall from an earlier module about culture, a subculture is a group that operates within larger society but is distinctive in the values and norms that govern membership formal or informal.
Oftentimes a subcultural group is visibly, aesthetically distinctive i. Much of this early research was a response to a growing concern about street gangs in Chicago in the s and s, with notorious gangsters like Al Capone in national headlines.
Albert K. This scholarship from the s reflected a growing unrest in post-World War 2 America as the Cold War gained momentum, demonstrating both a fear of ideological dissent from within and a new concern with low income immigrant communities.
The work was also implied a gendered exclusionary focus, negating the agency of females as potential deviant actors. Marvin Wolfgang and Franco Ferracuti published The Subculture of Violence in , which blended criminology, psychology, and sociology in an attempt to theorize the causes of assaultive behavior and homicide.
Wolfgang and Ferracuti suggest the value systems in subcultural groups, particularly inner city men, differ from centra l value systems and result in more violence , He identified four types of bonds: attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief. Say a high school student is trying to decide whether to skip a class to go to the mall with friends. He or she might consider the following:. We can also imagine more serious forms of deviance and consider how attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief might operate in other scenarios.
In what ways can this theory help inform prevention strategies, especially for young people? How can we strengthen attachment and commitment, for example?
Improve this page Learn More. Skip to main content. Module 6: Deviance, Crime, and Social Control. Search for:. Functionalism and Deviance Learning Outcomes Explain functionalist views on deviance. Try It. Watch It Watch the selected first four minutes of this video to learn about how structural functionalists think about deviance.
Glossary social control theory: a theory that states social control is directly affected by the strength of social bonds and that deviance results from a feeling of disconnection from society deviant subcultures theory: several theories that posit poverty and other community conditions give rise to certain subcultures through which adolescents acquire values that promote deviant behavior social disorganization theory: a theory that asserts crime occurs in communities with weak social ties and the absence of social control strain theory: a theory that addresses the relationship between having socially acceptable goals and having socially acceptable means to reach those goals.
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