Chapter 12 Social Structural Theories of Crime

Barlow Textbook Ninth Edition

Chapter Introduction:
• In sociology, theories emphasize the social aspects of human behavior,
including the organization, structure, and culture of group life as well as the
interactions that occur among individuals and groups
• Theories of crime that focus on social structure are generally macro
sociological
• Theories of crime that focus on social interactions explain crime in terms of
social process and are generally micro sociological
• In the end, all criminological theories are saying something about the
behavior of individuals, for it is individuals who make and enforce rules or
who behave in way that violate them
• The theories are grouped in different categories to emphasize their
similarities and differences, and to show how they build upon each other and
how they compete

Durkheim on Crime, Law, and Order

• Emile Durkheim is regarded by many as a founder of the sociological study of
crime and law
• Two major social structural theories of crime:
1. Social Disorganization theory
2. Anomie theory
• Both have strong and direct ties to Durkheim’s work
• Durkheim was a functionalist, and so it should not be surprising to find that he
was concerned with how societies attempt to regulate behavior for the
purposes of stability, control, and solidarity
• Law - Durkheim believed, should ideally represent the collective will of the
people
• Criminal – the behaviors that compromise and jeopardize the social order
• He used the term collective conscience to describe widely held social values
and beliefs. He reasoned that something should be made or considered
criminal if it offends the collective conscience
• Durkheim pointed out that crime is not abnormal because it is found in every
society. Crime and deviance are universal because every society must have
norms and in every society someone will break those norms at one time or
another
• Crime and deviance are also functional or socially beneficial because they
provide avenues for social change
• “Nothing is good indefinitely and to an unlimited extent…To make progress,
individual originality must be able to express itself”
• Durkheim made numerous contributions to criminology, perhaps the most
lasting was the induction of the concept of anomie.
 • Anomie was explained as a social condition in which “normlessness” prevails

Concept of Anomie Social Disorganization

Anomie exists when systems of regulation The relationship between the city and social
and restraint in a society have diminished so problems is that decaying urban
much that individuals suffer a loss of external environments generate high rates of crime
guidance and control in their goal seeking and delinquency
endeavors

Anomie is more likely during periods of rapid These studies were designed to document the
social change, when traditional norms prove belief that problems such as crime and
ineffective in regulating human conduct delinquency resulted from social
disorganization
Deviant Places Simply put, the inability of a community to
regulate itself. Social Disorganization is
maintained by a group’s commitment to
social rules; when this commitment breaks
down, social control breaks down.
This theory focuses on the following variables: This breakdown in social control could occur
density, poverty, mixed use, transience, and through ecological changes, such as when
dilapidation. Poor and densely populated communities experience rapid population
areas transient and results in less community change through social mobility and migration
surveillance, more opportunities to engage in
crime, and people who are disenchanted,
cynical, or apathetic about their
neighborhood
Stigmatized neighborhoods signify disorder An area known as the zone of transition was
and seem attractive to those seeking deviant found to have the highest crime rates. Such
opportunities. Stigmatized neighborhoods will areas of high crime were also characterized
tend to be overpopulated by the most by overcrowding, physical deterioration,
demoralized kinds of people and suffer from concentrations of minority and foreign-born
lenient law enforcement, which may increase residents, concentrated poverty, low rates of
the incidence of crime and deviance home ownership, lack of locally supported
community organizations and concentrations
of unskilled and unemployed workers
Merton’s Anomie Theory Further analysis showed that these areas also
had other problems: high rates of infant
mortality, tuberculosis, mental disorder, and
juvenile delinquency
A state of Anomie exerts pressure on people The gradual invasion of these areas by
to commit crime. Looking at the U.S. in the industry ad commerce, the continuous
1930s, Merton saw an inordinate emphasis movement of the older residents out of the
on material success, which was held up as area and the influx or newer groups, the
achievable by all Americans. Not all segments confusion of many divergent cultural
of society, however, could realistically expect standards, the economic insecurity of the
to have material success if they followed the families, all combine to render difficult the
rules of the game development of a stable and efficient
neighborhood for the education and control
of the child and the suppression of
lawlessness
African Americans and the lower classes were Shaw & McKay argued that delinquent values
routinely excluded from access to legitimate and traditions were being passed from one
means of achievement generation of residents to another
Strain is essentially the disjunction or lack of Social Disorg. Theory fell out of favor in the
fit between socially desirable goals and the 1960s, as a few criminologists identified
socially acceptable means to achieve those themselves with the perspective; many
goals youngsters do not become delinquent despite
living in high-crime areas. How could one
explain the emergence of highly organized,
cohesive youth gangs in neighborhoods that
are supposedly so disorganized.
Merton believes that various “modes of Another study using concepts from social
adaptation” are possible in response to the disorg. theory has shown that there are
strain resulting from unrealized expectations: significant community-level differences in the
1. Conform – accepting that they will racial and ethnic distribution of crime and
never “make it big” – unless they win victimization, with the fundamental issue
the lottery being the “embeddedness of black families in
2. Ritualism – they give up on the goals social environments with depleted
but continue to support the socially resources”. It may be that “the racial
approved means homicide differential is better explained by
3. Retreatism – reject both means and the greater resources that exist among whites
goals. Withdraw from society than by the higher levels of disadvantage that
altogether exist among blacks”
4. Rebellion – Substitute new sets of
norms and goals
5. Innovation – accepts the goals, but
they reject the institutional means

Merton identifies innovation most closely We should consider how the dramatic
with crime. He uses it to explain the relatively increase in U.S. imprisonment rates over the
high rates of property crime among the last few decades could negatively impact
lower-class and minority segments of society. neighborhood and community social
Their disadvantaged status, coupled with the organization. Imprisonment takes away
high cultural priority given to material success fathers, mother, neighbors, and workers from
as a goal for all, makes high rates of crime a the very social relationships that are needed
to keep community crime rates low.
“normal outcome” for those segments of
society.
In many ways his “theory” is merely a catalog
of potential reactions to anomie: It does not
tell us when to expect one mode of
adaptation rather than another, or whether
different segments of the population are
likely to select differ adaptations
Another criticism – too much is made of the
high rates of crime officially observed among
the lower classes. This diverts the theory and
research from the behavior of other classes
and from the power relations that exist
between classes
Another Limitation of Merton’s theory is that
it provides no explanation of why the “success
ethos” is so important in the U.S. Good
parenting and good grades in school are
considered less valuable because they
produce no capital.
Crime, then, is not so much a product of
those who are unable to achieve the
American Dream, but those who are locked
into those value
General Strain Theory
Starts with the assumption that negative
relationships with others causes strain or
stress in people’s lives. Negative relationships
are those “in which others are not treating
the individual as he or she would like to be
treated”
The first type of strain – the failure to achieve
positively valued goals – suggests that people
have in some way not met their goals or
expectations, or have received unfair or
inequitable outcomes in social relationships.
Strain also stems from situations in which
others remove or threaten to remove things
that a person positively value
Strain is also likely to develop when others
present or threaten to present an individual
with negative outcomes
 Since most people probably experience these
forms of strain at some point in their lives, the
question remains: Who is more likely to
commit crime or delinquent acts because of
the strain? Agnew suggests that it is those
who do not cope well with the stressful
situations
Coping abilities, or adaptations, that
moderate the effects of strain are things like
the ability to “blow off,” neutralize, or
downplay the seriousness and/or significance
of stressful life events
One study found that losing a parent or family
member and having negative relationships
with adults are more likely to be criminogenic
for males, but not for females. This provides
partial support to the notion that males tend
to manifest anger and strain externally, while
women more often manage these emotions
internally
African American youths, however, found that
after controlling for prior offending and other
factors, both boys and girls had similar
delinquent responses to the anger and
depression brought on by experiences with
racial discrimination

Chapter Conclusion:
• One problem with these theories as a whole is the almost exclusive focus on
lower-class delinquency
• These theories see crime as a consequence of inequality in the distribution of
material resources
• Unfortunately, one of the undesirable (and probably unintended)
consequences of the emphasis on the lower class has been the respectability
it has given the stereotypical view of crime and criminals. This view associates
being criminal with being a member of the lower-class
• Interestingly, the considerable media publicity given to crimes by members
of the middle and upper classes sensationalizes their crimes, and by doing so
seems only to confirm the idea that “real” crime is committed by the poor, the
unemployed, and the disreputable
• This common thread reflects an assumption that is made about human nature:
Human beings are basically good people. When they become “bad,” it is
because they are pushed or pulled into crime by adverse conditions