CAPE®

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON CRIME AND

DEVIANCE:

FUNCTIONALISM AND MARXISM

LESSON 7

Directed by
REMONE L. FOSTER
-

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 OBJECTIVES
At the end of this lesson, you should understand:

• The functionalist perspective of crime and deviance

• The functionality of crime and deviance in society
• The strain theory of crime
• The social disorganization theory of crime
• The Marxists perspective of crime and deviance
 Essay Question
“Crime and deviance is a natural component on society.
Any attempts to eliminate it would plunge society into
anomie.”
[25 marks]
•Functionalist theories focus on the preservation
of social order in society.
•Durkheim (1893) formed the opinion that
everything exists in society for a specific reason
and concluded that deviance helps to maintain
social cohesion and the collective conscious.
•The strain theory, social disorganization
theory, and cultural deviance theory represent
three functionalist perspectives on deviance in
society.
Durkheim – The Essential Nature of Deviance
Durkheim argued that as society grows more complex it becomes less
effective to control people which results in deviance. As social order
depends on shared norms and values (value consensus) that are acquired
through socialization, deviance is a behaviour that challenges this
consensus. He argued, however, that deviance exists in all societies and
therefore much have a functional importance:
• Deviance contributes to social order. The media, who reports on
deviance and the accompanying punishment, serve to educate the
public by restating society’s rules.
• It challenges people’s present views by offering new patterns and
behaviours, for example, the civil rights movements were deviant
behaviours that challenged the notions of segregation in the 1940s in
the USA.
• When deviance is punished, it reaffirms currently held
social norms, thus ensuring social order.
• Deviance contributes to social changes because it offers
alternative definitions to what is right.
• Deviance can act as an early- warning system that part of
society is malfunctioning and is in need of social engineering.
• Deviance provokes collective outrages and therefore social
integration and solidarity against outsiders such as criminals.
• Deviance and its punishments are part of the secondary
socialization process in that they reinforce what counts as
acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.
Criticisms of the functionality of crime and
deviance
While Durkheim acknowledged the importance of deviance in society and, by
extension, offers a reasonable explanation for deviance, his theory is often
limited in that
• he doesn’t explain why some groups are more prone to deviance than
others.
• Some types of deviance are never functional nor beneficial to society e.g.,
child abuse
• He underestimated the degree of conflict in society and exaggerated the
importance of consensus in society.
• Crime can cause people to withdraw from society, not come together
• Durkheim fails to see the degree of power an individual has to commit
crimes.
The Strain Theory
• Sociologist Robert Merton agreed that deviance is an
inherent part of a functioning society, but he expanded on
Durkheim’s ideas by developing strain theory, which notes
that access to socially acceptable goals plays a part in
determining whether a person conforms or deviates.
• Merton’s theory differs somewhat from Durkheim's in that he
argued that the real problem is not created by a sudden social
change, as Durkheim proposed, but rather by a social
structure that holds out the same goals to all its members
without giving them equal means to achieve them.
•Merton's theory does not focus upon crime per
sa, but rather upon various acts of deviance,
which may be understood to lead to criminal
behaviour. He notes that there are certain goals
which are strongly emphasized by society.
•Society emphasizes certain means to reach those
goals (such as education, hardwork, etc.,)
however, not everyone has the equal access to the
legitimate means to attain those goals. The stage
then is set for anomie.
Merton defined five (5) ways that people respond to this gap between having a
socially accepted goal but no socially accepted way to pursue it.

(a) Conformity: Those who conform choose not to deviate. They pursue their
goals to the extent that they can through socially accepted means.
(b) Innovation: Those who innovate pursue goals they cannot reach through
legitimate means by instead using criminal or deviant means.
(c) Ritualism: People who ritualize lower their goals until they can reach them
through socially acceptable ways. These members of society focus on
conformity rather than attaining a distant dream.
(d) Retreatism: Others retreat and reject society’s goals and means. Some beggars
and street people have withdrawn from society’s goal of financial success.
(e) Rebellion: A handful of people rebel, replacing a society’s goals and means
with their own. Terrorists or freedom fighters look to overthrow a society’s
goals through socially unacceptable means.
Evaluation of the Strain Theory:

• In Merton’s eyes, success is defined mostly by monetary availability.

• He believes that deviance is created because of the pressure generated
from the attachment of society to this cultural goal.
• Further that society causes people to do crime as it encourages people
to subscribe to the goal of material success through education and
mass media.
• Society is unable to provide for the needs of everyone because not
everyone can attain qualifications and not everyone can gain access to
jobs. People cope by either conforming or turning illegitimate means
such as crime, rebellion, or retreats from society e.g. suicide, drugs,
dropouts etc.
Strengths of the Strain Theory

• Merton recognizes the importance of inequality, conflict

and ideology to the sociology of deviance.

• He also adopted a critical perspective of the US society at

the time and recognized its dysfunctional aspects.

• Furthermore, although Merton ignores the cultural

transmission of deviant adaptations his theory can be linked
with the concept of subculture. This would help to explain
how social groups that share a similar position in the social
structure collectively evolve solutions to common
problems.
Weaknesses of the Strain Theory

(i) Not all members of society share the goal of material

success. He fails to look at white- collar crimes which is
usually crime committed by those who have achieved
material success.
(ii) He does not account for violent crimes committed in
groups such as juvenile delinquency
(iii) Exaggerate connection between class & crime (e.g., white
collar crime by middle-& upper-class individuals ignored
(iv) Merton ignores the cultural transmission of deviant
adaptations
Social disorganization theory of crime
• Developed by researchers at the University of Chicago in the
1920s and 1930s, social disorganization theory asserts that
crime is most likely to occur in communities with weak social
ties and the absence of social control.

• An individual who grows up in a poor neighborhood with

high rates of drug use, violence, teenage delinquency, and
deprived parenting is more likely to become a criminal than
an individual from a wealthy neighborhood with a good
school system and families who are involved positively in the
community.
• Social disorganization theory points to broad social
factors as the cause of deviance.
• A person isn’t born a criminal, but becomes one
over time, often based on factors in his or her social
environment.
• Research into social disorganization theory can greatly
influence public policy.
• For instance, studies have found that children from
disadvantaged communities who attend preschool
programs that teach basic social skills are significantly
less likely to engage in criminal activity.
• Conflict theory looks to social and economic factors
as the causes of crime and deviance.
• Unlike functionalists, conflict theorists don’t see these
factors as positive functions of society, but as evidence
of inequality in the system.
• They also challenge social disorganization theory and
control theory, arguing that both ignore racial and
socioeconomic issues and oversimplify social trends.
• Conflict theorists also look for answers to the
correlation of gender and race with wealth and crime.
• Marxists argue that crime is an inevitable product of
capitalism and the inequalities it generates.
• They argue that inequalities in wealth and income
create poverty and homelessness and crime is a
rational response to these problems.
• Capitalism encourages values such as greed and
materialism which are conducive to all classes
committing crime.
• Inequalities in wealth and power leads to frustration,
hostility and envy.
• Marxists argue that white collar crime and corporate crimes
are neglected by society because they are both likely to be
carried out by the capitalist class or its agents.
• They believe that society views these crimes as invisible,
complex, indirect and morally ambiguous and so rarely
prosecuted.
• They argue that self interest, greed and hostility generated by
capitalism explains the motivation behind many crimes at all
levels within society.
• Members of each class use whatever means they can to
commit crime – thus the working-class lad turns to mugging,
whilst the businessperson uses corrupt lawyers.
Criticisms of the Marxists
• Marxists fails to look at the fact that crime affects
mostly the working class and not the capitalists.
• They argue that crime is a response to oppressed
politics but they fail to argue their point of in what
way violent crime are political.
• Feminists whine that they put too much emphasis on
class inequality – and ignore issues of patriarchy.
• They ignore issues to do with racism in criminal
behaviours.
• Assumes a communist system could eradicate crime –
before the Soviet Union ended, they too experienced
crime. Modern day communists states such as China
and Cuba also experience crime and deviance.
• Capitalism doesn’t always produce high rates of crime
– i.e. Switzerland – had capitalism for a long time, but
has very low rates of crime.
• Left realists argue that violent crimes are generally
much worse than corporate crimes for the victim – i.e.
anyone that’s ever been beaten up or mugged will
agree with this.
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