chapter 5 strain and cultural deviance theories. copyright © 2007 by the mcgraw-hill companies,...

Chapter 5

Strain and Cultural Deviance Theories

Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Emile DurkheimStructural-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


Anomie and SuicideSuicide 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.


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 elements1. Cultural aspirations2. Institutionalized means


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.


Merton’s Modes of Individual Adaptation

Mode of Adaptation Culture Goals Institutionalized Means Conformity + + Innovation + - Ritualism - + Retreatism - - Rebellion +/- +/-

+ = acceptance; - = rejection; +/- = rejection and substitution


Robert MertonModes 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.


Retreatism: Individuals who give up on the goals and the means.


Rebellion – both cultural goals and means are rejected and substituted by new ones.


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 variablesWhy 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


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.


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.


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.


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


General Strain TheoryRobert 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.


Agnew argued that in Western Societies strains most likely to cause crime include:

1. Child abuse and neglect2. Negative secondary-school experiences3. Abusive peer relations4. Chronic unemployment5. Marital problems6. Parental rejection7. Erratic, excessive, and or/harsh supervision or

discipline8. Criminal victimization; 9. Homelessness;10. Racial, ethnic or gender discrimination


Crime Preventions Strategies Based on Strain

Theory Head Start

Project Follow Through

Perry Preschool Project

Job Corps


Cultural Deviance Theories

Cultural deviance theories attribute crime to a set of values that exist in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

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 TheoryShaw 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 DisorganizationTheory -- Shaw and McKay

ContinuedHigh 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.


Natural Urban Areas of ChicagoPark and Burgess

Social Disorganization


Evaluation – Social Disorganization

Criticized for too much focus on how crime patterns are transmitted, and not how they start in the first place.

1. Does not account for the aging-out phenomenon

2. Why most people that live in these areas do not commit crime.

3. Why some bad neighborhoods are insulated from crime.

4. Does not explain middle class delinquency.


Edwin SutherlandDifferential Association

Theory1. 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 Continued4. 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.



Theory Continued6. 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.



Theory Continued8. 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 non-criminal behavior is an expression of the same needs and values.


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.

chapter 5 strain and cultural deviance theories. copyright © 2007 by the mcgraw-hill companies,...

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