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CCJ1010 Criminology
Chapter 5
Strain and Cultural Deviance Theories
Sociological Theories
 Attempt to explain the reasons for differences in crime rates in the social environment:
o Strain
o Cultural deviance
o Social control
Why are rime rates different in one neighborhood compared to the another?
Between one group to another?
Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
Structural-Functionalist
 Structural-Functionalist perspective was developed by Emile Durkheim
 Anomie: the breakdown of social order as a result of the loss of standards and values,
normlessness
 Durkheim believed that rapid social change caused crime
Society is like a timepiece; as long as all its parts are operating smoothly, it will function properly.
Durkheim
 Anomie and Suicide
o “Anomic Suicide”--Why it was more common in some groups than in others
 Sudden economic change (depression or prosperity)
 People are thrown into unfamiliar situations
 Rules that once guided behavior no longer hold
Anomie/Strain
Strain Theory
 Argues that all members of society subscribe to one set of cultural values—that of the middle
class.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
General Strain Theory
Robert Merton (1910-2003)
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Strain
o A condition caused by the failure to achieve one’s social goals
o Isolated
o Frustrated
o Ostracized from economic mainstream
o Angry
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Anomie
Normlessness produced by rapidly shifting moral values; occurs when personal goals cannot
be achieved using available means
Youths use deviant methods to achieve goals
Youths reject socially accepted goals and substitute deviant ones
o Drug users/alcoholics
Robert Merton Modes of Adaptation
 Conformity: Most common. Individuals accept the culturally defined goals and the
prescribed means for achieving those goals.
 Innovation: Individuals accept society’s goals, but design their own means for achieving
them.
 Ritualism: Abandon society’s goals and concentrate only on the means.
Conformity
Innovation
Ritualism
Robert Merton Modes of Adaptation (Continued)
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Retreatism: Individuals who give up on the goals and the means.
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Rebellion: Individuals who reject the cultural goals and the cultural means and substitute
new cultural goals and means.
Retreatism
Rebellion
Merton’s Modes of Individual Adaptation
Social Class and Crime
 A summary of more than 100 projects concluded that “lower-class people do commit those
direct interpersonal types of crime which are normally handled by the police at a higher rate
than middle-class people.”
The Goal of Economic Success Causes:
 The devaluation of noneconomic roles and functions
 The accommodation of other institutions to economic needs
 The penetration of economic norms
General Strain Theory
Robert Agnew
 Strain caused by failure to achieve positively valued goals
o Aspire wealth and fame but assume such goals are impossible to achieve
o Compare themselves to peers who seem to be doing better
o Believe they are not being treated fairly by a parent or a teacher
 Strain as the removal of positively valued stimuli
o Loss of boyfriend/girlfriend
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o Death of loved one
o Parental divorce
Strain as the presentation of negative stimuli
o Pain-inducing social interactions
 Child abuse
 Criminal victim
 School failure
Strain-producing events
Each type of strain increases an individual’s feelings of anger, fear, or depression.
The most critical reaction for general strain theory is anger
Increases desire for revenge
Helps justify aggressive behavior
Crime Preventions Strategies Based on Strain Theory
 Head Start
o Improves socially competence of low-income children
 Perry Preschool Project
o Provide children with the skills needs to get ahead at school and the workplace
 Job Corps
o Aimed at “the worst of the worst”
o Enables neglected teenagers to master work habits not learned at home
Cultural Deviance Theories
 Cultural deviance theories claim that lower-class people have a different set of values, which
tend to conflict with the values of the middle-class.
Social Disorganization Theory
Shaw and McKay
 Crime rates were differentially distributed throughout the city, and areas of high crime rates
had high rates of other community problems.
 Most delinquency occurred in the areas nearest the central business district and decreased
with the distance from the center.
 Some areas consistently suffered high delinquency rates, regardless of the ethnic makeup of
the population.
Social Disorganization Theory -- Shaw and McKay (Continued)
High delinquency areas were characterized by a high percentage of immigrants, nonwhites, lowincome families, and a low percentage of home ownership.
In high-delinquency areas there was a general acceptance of nonconventional norms, but these
norms competed with conventional ones held by some of the inhabitants.
Natural Urban Areas of Chicago
Park and Burgess
Concentric Zones
 Transitional zones areas heaviest with delinquency
 Zones farthest from center, least prone to delinquency
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Natural Urban Areas of Chicago
Park and Burgess
 Community based delinquency- prevention programs
Social Control
 The ability of a healthy, organized community to regulate itself
Disorganized areas are not capable of social control because wracked with deterioration and
economic failure
 Lack after school programs
 Informal/formal forms of social control frayed
 Kids free to mix with deviant peers
 More likely to use drugs
Edwin Sutherland
(1883-1950)
Differential Association Theory
 Criminal behavior is learned primarily in interpersonal groups, and youths will become
delinquent if definitions they learn in those groups that are favorable to violating the law
exceed definitions favorable to obeying the law
Edwin Sutherland
Differential Association Theory
1. Criminal behavior is learned.
2. Criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other persons in a process of
communication.
3. The principle part of the learning of criminal behavior occurs within intimate personal
groups.
Edwin Sutherland
Differential Association Theory (Continued)
4. When criminal behavior is learned, the learning includes (a) techniques of committing the
crime, and (b) the specific direction of motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes.
5. The specific direction of motives and drives is learned from definitions of the legal codes
as favorable or unfavorable.
Edwin Sutherland
Differential Association Theory (Continued)
6. A person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to violation of
law over definitions unfavorable to violation of law.
7. Differential associations may vary in frequency, duration, priority, and intensity.
Edwin Sutherland
Differential Association Theory (Continued)
8. The process of learning criminal behavior by association with criminal and anti-criminal
patterns involves all the mechanisms that are involved in any other learning.
9. While criminal behavior is an expression of general needs and values, it is not explained
by those general needs and values, since noncriminal behavior is an expression of the
same needs and values.
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Culture Conflict Theory
 Culture conflict theory focuses on the source of criminal norms and attitudes.
 According to Thorsten Sellin, conduct norms-- norms that regulate our daily lives--are rules
that reflect the attitudes of the groups to which each of us belong.
 The norms define what is considered normal or abnormal behavior.
Cultural Deviance Theory
 Links delinquent acts to the formation of independent subcultures with a unique set of values
that clash with the mainstream culture
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Culture Conflict – Elijah Anderson – “Code of the Streets”
o When the values of a subculture clash with those of the dominant culture
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Lower-class values
o Being tough
o Defying authority
o Not showing fear
o Using your wits
o Sexual conquest means of achieving self-respect
End of Chapter 5