Social Structure
Theories
Social Structural Theories
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
Development
What is sociology and why did it come to dominate
explanations of human behavior?
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
Social Change
Culture of Poverty
Social Structural Theories
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Social Disorganization
Strain
Cultural Deviance
Social Change or
Culture of Poverty
 Social
Change
 Post
Industrial Society
 Change in Technology
 Economic Structure of Society
 Culture
of Poverty
 Cynicism
 Mistrust
in Government/ Agents of Soc. Cont.
 Truly Disadvantaged Never given a chance
Social Change/Culture of Poverty

1920’s
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1930’s
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The Great Depression
FDR's Fireside Chats
1940’s
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
Women vote for the first time
Prohibition legislated
Stock Market crashes
World War II; War production pulls the country out of the Depression
Scrap drives for steel, tin, paper and rubber
Returning GIs create the Baby Boom
1950’s
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American industry expands to meet peacetime needs of thousands of young servicemen with new
families, jobs and homes
"Separate but equal" educational opportunities for blacks; in 1954, integration began across
America with Supreme Court decision
Social Change/Culture of Poverty
 1960’s
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70 million children became teenagers and young adults
Civil Rights Movement
 1970’s
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Women's Lib is born
By 1974, economy in worst recession in 40 years
 1980’s
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Reagan declares the war on drugs
Sandra Day O'Connor becomes the first woman on the Supreme Court
Volunteerism and contributions reach an all-time high ($115 billion)
AIDS emerges as a Health Care crisis
Three Branches of Social Structure
Theory
Social disorganization
theory focuses on
conditions in the
environment
Strain theory
focuses on conflict
between goals and
means.
Cultural
deviance theory
combines the
two.
Crime
Social Disorganization Theory:
Concentric Zone Theory
http://www.umsl.edu/~rkeel/200/socdisor.html
MAJOR PREMISE
Theoretical Basis
Crime is a product of
transitional neighborhoods
that manifest social
disorganization and value
conflict.
• Crime Rates linked to
neighborhood characteristics
• Breakdown in informal social
control or inability to establish
• Pulling forces that attract group
membership (I.e. gangs)
A decrease in the influence of existing social rules of behavior upon the individual
members of the group. An area where social institutions, norms and values, are no
longer functioning."
Without normative constraint==>Anything goes==Deviance
flourishes.
Social Disorganization Theory:
Concentric Zone Theory Model
Strain/Anomie Theory
– Anomie
 Merton – Anomie and Crime
 Merton – Strain and Crime
 Modes of Adaptation
 Extension of Theory (Agnew General
Strain Theory)
 Durkheim
Anomie – Merton’s
Reconceptualization
• Reconceptualizes Durkheim's concept of Anomie.
• Not an overall, or even localized breakdown in normative structure.
• The cultural system and social structure of society is basically intact,
workable, functional.
• In fact, to a certain extent, Deviance represents the functionality of the
system.
• Merton's "Dream Machine."
• Problem is: A disjuncture within the cultural system between the
Goals (values) which define our lives and the culturally determined,
institutionalized, legitimate Means for achieving them.
Strain Theory:
Anomie
MAJOR PREMISE
People who adopt the goals of
society but lack the means to attain them
seek alternatives, such as crime.
STRENGTHS
Points out how competition for success creates
conflict and crime. Suggests that social conditions and
not personality can account for crime. Can explain
middle- and upper-class crime.
.
Basic Component of Strain Theory
Poverty
Maintenance of conventional
rules and norms
Strain
Formation of gangs
and groups
Crime and
delinquency
Criminal Careers
Typology of Individual Modes of
Adaptation
MODES OF
ADAPTATION
CULTURAL
GOALS
INSTITUTIONALIZED
MEANS
1. Conformity
+
+
2. Innovation
+
-
3. Ritualism
-
+
4. Retreatism
-
-
+/-
+/-
5. Rebellion
General Strain Theory
Strain has a variety of sources. Strain causes crime
in the absence of adequate coping mechanisms.
 Agnew
broadened strain theory
 Not just a difference between what is expected
and what is achieved
 Strain
produces negative stimuli
 removes positive stimuli

Cultural Deviance Theory:
Miller’s Focal Concern Theory
Focal Concerns
MAJOR PREMISE
Citizens who obey the street
• Trouble
rules of lower-class life (focal
• Toughness
concerns) find themselves in
• Smartness
conflict with the dominant
• Excitement
culture.
• Fate
• Autonomy
Cultural Deviance Theory:
Cohen’s Theory of Delinquent Gangs
MAJOR PREMISE
STRENGTHS
Status frustration of
lower-class boys, created
by their failure to achieve
middle-class success,
causes them to join
gangs.
Shows how the
conditions of lower-class
life produce crime.
Explains violence and
destructive acts.
Identifies conflict of lower
class with middle class.
Cultural Deviance Theory:
Cloward and Ohlin’s Theory of
Opportunity
MAJOR PREMISE: Blockage
of conventional opportunities
causes lower-class youths to
join criminal, conflict, or
retreatist gangs.
STRENGTHS: Shows that even
illegal opportunities are structured
in society. Indicates why people
become involved in a particular
type of criminal activity. Presents
a way of preventing crime.