Functionalist Perspectives on Deviance:



Functionalist Perspectives on Deviance:

• Deviance is rooted in societal factors such as rapid social change and lack of social integration among people.

• Durkheim: attributes social upheaval with shift from mechanical to organic solidarity, which was brought about by rapid industrialization & urbanization

• Rapid social change contributes to anomie ---- people experience a sense of hopelessness b/c social norms are weak, absent, or conflicting.

• Less social integration=more deviance and crime

• Deviance is natural and inevitable: Three important functions

o Clarifies rules

o Unites the group or community

o Promotes social change (civil disobedience – revolution)

• Deviance can make society dysfunctional (unpredictable, chaotic, violent, unstable)

Merton’s Strain Theory of Deviance

• Structural Functionalist approach: describes relationship between society’s economic structure and why people might engage in various forms of deviant behavior.

• Often associated with explaining deviant behavior by people from lower economic neighborhoods, who are typically depicted as being left out of the economic mainstream, feeling hopeless, & sometimes turning their anger & rage toward other people or things.

Five Ways of adapting to cultural goals:

• Conformity – accepts culturally approved goals; pursues them through culturally approved means

• Innovation – accepts culturally approved goals; adopts disapproved means of achieving them

• Ritualism – abandons society’s goals but continues to conform to approved means

• Retreatism – Abandons both approved goals and the approved means to achieve them

• Rebellion – Challenges both the approved goals and the approved means to achieve them…wants to replace them both!

Opportunity theory: Access to Illegitimate Opportunities

• Focuses on the close association between forms of deviance & social class position.

• Three different types of illegitimate opportunity structures:

• Criminal – devoted to theft, extortion, & other illegal means of securing and income.

• Conflict – emerge in communities that that may not provide either legitimate or illegitimate opportunities. People seek to acquire a reputation by fighting over territory or anything of significance to them and adopting a value system of toughness, courage, & similar qualities.

• Retreatist – unable to gain success through legitimate means and unwilling to do so through illegal ones ( usually they are your strung out drug addicts).

Symbolic Interactionist Perspectives on Deviance

• Deviance is learned through interactions with other people (Who you hang with is who you become).

Differential Association: Calls attention to the fact that criminal activity is more likely to occur when a person has frequent, intense, & long lasting interactions with others who violate the law.

*Rational Choice Theory*: deviant behavior occurs when a person weighs the costs & benefits of criminal behavior & determines that the benefits outweigh the risks.

Social Bond Theory: Probability of deviant behavior increased when a person’s ties to society are weakened or broken. Why? B/C people insulate themselves from pressure by having positive self – esteem & good group relations (leads to inner containment: self – control, a sense of responsibility, & resistance to diversions. Outer containment: supportive family & friends, reasonable social expectations, & supervision by others).

Labeling theory: Includes Primary / Secondary / Tertiary deviance (person labeled deviant seeks to normalize the behavior by relabeling it as non – deviant

Conflict Perspectives on Deviance: Who determines what kinds of behavior are deviant or criminal?

• Political and Economic elites determine what is illegal. They will control two categories of people: social dynamites (rioters, labor organizers, protesters, criminals) & social junk (welfare recipients, homeless, & persons w/ disabilities). Laws don’t reflect a consensus of the majority of the people.

• Conflict theory: Capitalism legitimizes class inequalities & maintains the capitalists’ superior position in class structure. Capitalism produces haves & have nots, who engage in deviance and crime just to survive. Laws are written & enforced to benefit the capitalist class by ensuring that the working class/poor do not infringe on the property or threaten the safety of the upper class. Someone has to be on the bottom of the social structure in order for Capitalism to exist.

Knowledge as Power… the more you know the more power you have to manipulate and control

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