Chapter 5
Strain and Cultural Deviance
Theories
Emile Durkheim
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
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Anomie and Suicide
Suicide rates increased during times of
sudden economic change – major
depression or unexpected prosperity.
People become disoriented and confused
when norms by which they lived are no
longer relevant.
“human desires are boundless, an
insatiable and bottomless abyss”
When old rules no longer determined
how rewards are distributed among
members of society, there is no longer
any restraint on what people want.
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Robert Merton’s Strain
Theory
Argues that all members of society
subscribe to one set of cultural
values—that of the middle class.
Opportunities to get to the top are
not equally distributed.
His theory emphasizes two
elements
1.
2.
Cultural aspirations
Institutionalized means
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For a society to be stable, these two
elements must be fairly well integrated.
Disparity between goals and means
fosters frustration which leads to strain.
In the U.S. the egalitarian principle
denies the existence of limits to upward
mobility within the social structure.
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Merton’s Modes of
Individual Adaptation
Mode of Adaptation
Conformity
Innovation
Ritualism
Retreatism
Rebellion
Culture Goals
+
+
+/-
Institutionalized Means
+
+
+/-
+ = acceptance; - = rejection; +/- = rejection and substitution
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Robert Merton
Modes of Adaptation
Conformity: Most
common. Individuals
accept the culturally
defined goals and
the prescribed
means for achieving
those goals.
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Innovation:
Individuals accept
society’s goals, but
design their own
means for achieving
them.
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Ritualism: Abandon
society’s goals and
concentrate only on
the means.
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Retreatism:
Individuals who give
up on the goals and
the means.
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Rebellion – both
cultural goals and
means are rejected
and substituted by
new ones.
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Social Class and Crime
Merton and his followers predict that the greatest
proportion of crime will be found in the lower classes
because they have the least opportunity to reach
their goal.
Some studies support this assumption but others find
no association between these two variables
Why don’t all people in the lowest class commit
crimes?
Studies show that income inequality might be more
likely to generate violent behavior in more democratic
societies
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The general public expresses hostility against
the “disreputable poor”
This hostility causes the disreputable poor to
build up frustration.
Youngsters who grow up in a culture of
delinquent behavior (friends and family)
become embedded in behaviors that that
result in unemployment and trouble.
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Crime and the American
Dream
(Messner and Rosenfeld)
Material success goal is pervasive in
American Culture
Succeed by any means necessary, even if
those mans are illegitimate
The American Dream then encourages high
crime rates.
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The Goal of Economic
Success Causes:
The devaluation of non-economic roles and
functions
- Education is important only because it
promises economic gains.
The accommodation of other institutions to
economic needs
- noneconomic components must
accommodate others.
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The penetration of economic norms
- terms and roles are inspired by economic
world.
Crime will only decrease when noneconomic
institutions have the capacity to control
behavior
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General Strain Theory
Robert Agnew
Strain caused by failure to achieve positively
valued goals.
Stress caused by the removal of positively
valued stimuli from the individual.
Strain caused by the presentation of negative
stimuli.
The most critical reaction for general strain
theory is anger, a desire for revenge helps
justify aggressive behavior.
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Agnew argued that in Western Societies strains
most likely to cause crime include:
1.
Child abuse and neglect
2.
Negative secondary-school experiences
3.
Abusive peer relations
4.
Chronic unemployment
5.
Marital problems
6.
Parental rejection
7.
Erratic, excessive, and or/harsh supervision or
discipline
8.
Criminal victimization;
9.
Homelessness;
10. Racial, ethnic or gender discrimination
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Crime Preventions
Strategies Based on
Strain Theory
Head Start
Project Follow Through
Perry Preschool Project
Job Corps
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Cultural Deviance
Theories
Cultural deviance theories attribute crime to a
set of values that exist in disadvantaged
neighborhoods.
Cultural deviance theories claim that lowerclass people have a different set of values,
which tend to conflict with the values of the
middle-class.
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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.
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Social Disorganization
Theory -- Shaw and McKay
Continued
High delinquency areas were characterized
by a high percentage of immigrants,
nonwhites, and low-income families and a low
percentage of home ownership.
In high-delinquency areas there was a
general acceptance of non-conventional
norms, but these norms competed with
conventional ones held by some of the
inhabitants.
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Natural Urban Areas of Chicago
Park and Burgess
Social Disorganization
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Evaluation – Social
Disorganization
1.
2.
3.
4.
Criticized for too much focus on how crime
patterns are transmitted, and not how they
start in the first place.
Does not account for the aging-out
phenomenon
Why most people that live in these areas do
not commit crime.
Why some bad neighborhoods are insulated
from crime.
Does not explain middle class delinquency.
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Edwin Sutherland
Differential Association
Theory
1.
2.
3.
Criminal behavior is learned.
Criminal Behavior is learned in interaction
with other persons in a process of
communication.
The principle part of the learning of criminal
behavior occurs within intimate personal
groups.
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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.
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Edwin Sutherland
Differential Association
Theory Continued
6.
7.
A person becomes delinquent because of
an excess of definitions favorable to
violation of law over definitions unfavorable
to violation of law.
Differential associations may vary in
frequency, duration, priority, and intensity.
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Edwin Sutherland
Differential Association
Theory Continued
8.
9.
The process of learning criminal behavior
by association with criminal and anticriminal patterns involves all the
mechanisms that are involved in any other
learning.
While criminal behavior is an expression of
general needs and values, it is not
explained by those general needs and
values, since non-criminal 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.
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