Notesale: Turn your study into money

Document Preview

Extracts from the notes are below, to see the PDF you'll receive please use the links above

---

Juvenile Delinquency
Durkheim, Merton- Anomie Theory
Emile Durkheim- The Father of Functionalism
Durkheim assessed divisions of labor, religious institutions, all within the model of
organismic functionalism
The normality of crime: all societies have crime, and suggest that crime has a function,
and that it fulfills a social need
...

Durkheim argues that individuals value norms and that breaking social norms is a crime
against society
...
Durkheim argues that if
crime were to cease, individuals would refocus their definition of crime to include lesser
offenses that previously held little influence on punishment because crime is needed to
establish norms
...

Durkheim argues that crime is problematic when there are moments of rapid social
change, such as during war, environmental catastrophes, depression, revolutions, famine,
massive immigration, disease epidemics
...
Individuals can
exist in a state of anomie, where they have been socialized with one set of norms, and
subsequently find themselves in a situation where there are new norms of which they are
unfamiliar
...

Type of Change
Durkheim argues that with rapid social change there is a break down of social norms, and
society exists in a state of anomie
...

Merton argues that cultural goals, such as the American Dream (economic stability and
material wealth as a symbol of success), and lack of legitimate means of achieving this
cultural goal, produces strain, such as anger or frustration, which results in higher rates of
crime
...
Merton argues that society is
structured in disparate ways, which ensures that certain groups of people have less access
to obtain the cultural goals of economic mobility
...

Merton 5 Responses to Strain
I
...

III
...

V
...
Merton argues that most kinds of crime occur in this wayindividuals who don’t have access to legitimate means for success find new
ways (ex: selling drugs, theft & robbery, scams)
Retreatist: gives up on the goals and give up on the means, most likely
turning to drugs or alcohol, vagrants
Rebellionist: have given up on societies values and goals, but attempts to
replace them with new goals that are more accessible – Marxist
revolutionaries

Comparing Anomie (Durkheim) and Strain (Merton) Theories
I
...

III
...


Motivation for delinquency rests on the nature of people
Determined versus agency: social structures produce certain conditions where
we will engage in crime (even if the act previously wasn’t defined as criminal)
(anomie), but agency exists in the 5 adaptions to strain (Merton)
Macro (unequal opportunities) v

---