A2 Sociology Functionalism and Crime – Consolidation questions
A Questions
1. What promoted social order according to Durkheim?
2. Why did Durkheim see punishment as an important tool in dealing with crime?
3. Why did levels of anomie increase during the period of industrialisation
according to Durkheim?
Vocabulary
Collective conscience – the shared moral values of society.
Sanction – punishment that encourages socially expected behaviour.
Anomie – when someone is insufficiently integrated into society’s norms and values.
B Questions
1. How is Merton’s use of anomie different to Durkheim’s?
2. Why is his work also known as strain theory?
3. How does Merton link crime to blocked opportunities?
4. What criticisms can be directed at Merton’s ideas?
Vocabulary
Anomic paradigm – five-category model to illustrate how when people's goals are
beyond their means this can lead to criminal behaviour.
Strain theory – theory of crime based on how the strain between sharing the goals of
society but not having the means of achieving them.
C Questions
1. What were Hirchi’s four bonds of attachment?
2. How would Durkheim’s stress on the importance of punishment fit in with
Hirschi’s ideas?
3. What similarities are there between the ideas of Merton and Hirschi?
Vocabulary
Bonds of attachment – four social bonds that bind us to society’s values.
A2 Sociology Functionalism and Crime – Consolidation questions
D Questions
1. How does Albert Cohen develop Merton’s idea of strain?
2. How do Cloward and Ohlin’s views on goals and values differ to Merton’s?
3. How is Miller’s explanation to juvenile delinquency different to Albert Cohen’s?
4. These sub cultural theorists were writing over 40 years ago. Are they still
relevant today?
Vocabulary
Reaction formation – when delinquent gang members rebound from conventional failure
seeking to create their own alternative status.
Status frustration – when status is denied through legitimate means, it is often sought
through deviant behaviour.
Illegitimate career structure – the existence of an alternative deviant opportunity
structure that exists in areas where legitimate means (good education, employment
prospects and social mobility) are not readily available.
Focal concerns – a distinctive set of deviant subcultural values which Walter Miller
believes the lower working class are socialised into.
Use the following terms to fill the appropriate gaps in the text.
anomie; blocked; bonds; Cohen; Cloward; concerns; focal; frustration; illegitimate; integrated;
Merton; Ohlin; status; strain.
According to Durkheim deviant behaviour occurs when individuals are not fully _____________ into
society's norms and values. Robert _____________ regarded the concept of '_____________' as
used by Durkheim as too vague in its original and developed _____________ theory to reflect the
complex link between goals and means. Travis Hirschi sees the level of crime linked to the strength
of '____________ of attachment'. Albert _____________ uses the term 'reaction formation' to
describe how delinquent youths rebound from conventional failure (e.g. in schooling). He goes on to
argue that faced with failure they suffer '_____________ _____________' and choose a delinquent
subculture specific to the working-class values they have been socialised into. _____________ and
_____________ see the lower working class faced with blocked opportunities as often choosing an
'_____________ career or opportunity structure'. Miller sees young lower working-class males as
socialised from early age into six '_____________ _____________'. Much subsequent research has
supported earlier functionalist ideas. For example, Nightingale, Bourgois, Left Realism support
Merton’s basic idea that a lot of material crime stems from _____________ opportunities. The work
of Winlow has parallels with Cohen’s status frustration, the violent conflict subculture of Cloward
and Ohlin and the masculine socialised values of Miller.