Social problems (Unit 1: PART 2)

Theoretical approaches to social problems

Learning outcomes

 Critically discuss the various theoretical approaches to social problems

 Critically discuss the nature of deviant behaviour

Theory vs Perspective

Micro- vs Macro theories

Structural functionalist approach/perspective:

 Interrelated parts in dynamic equilibrium – if one part changes too fast, disrupts the
entire system.
 Social stability is necessary for a strong society, and adequate socialisation and
social integration are necessary for social stability.
 Society’s social institutions perform important functions to help ensure social stability.
 Social problems weaken a society’s stability but do not reflect fundamental faults in
how the society is structured.
 Solutions to social problems should take the form of gradual social reform rather than
sudden and far-reaching change.
 Despite their negative effects, social problems often also serve important functions
for society.

Conflict approach/perspective:

 Society characterised by pervasive inequality based on social class, race, gender,

and other factors.
 Far-reaching social change is needed to reduce or eliminate social inequality and to
create an egalitarian society.
 Social problems arise from fundamental faults in the structure of a society and both
reflect and reinforce inequalities based on social class, race, gender and other
dimensions.
 Dominant and subordinate groups end up in conflict over valued & scarce resources.
 Successful solutions to social problems must involve far-reaching change in the
structure of society.
Symbolic interactionist approach/perspective:

 People construct their roles as they interact; they do not merely learn the roles that
society has set out for them.
 As this interaction occurs, individuals negotiate their definitions of the situations in
which they find themselves and socially construct the reality of these situations.
 In so doing, they rely heavily on symbols such as words and gestures to reach a
shared understanding of their interaction.
 Social problems arise from the interaction of individuals.
 People who engage in socially problematic behaviours often learn these behaviours
from other people.
 Individuals also learn their perceptions of social problems from other people.

Feminist approach/perspective:

 Although many variations of feminist theory exist, they all emphasize that society is
filled with gender inequality such that women are the subordinate sex in many
dimensions of social, political, and economic life.
 Traditional science reflects a male view – objective, rational, instrumental.
 Propose need for feminist orientation to give women a voice that has been denied in
science.
 Incorporate female values and perspectives into research: focus on subjective,
empathetic, inclusive, relational, feeling focus.
 Reject all sexism in science and research.

Applying three perspectives: Armed robbery

Functionalist approach

Suggest that armed robbery serves positive functions for society, such as the job-
creating function mentioned earlier for crime in general.
It would still think that efforts should be made to reduce armed robbery, but also
assume that far-reaching changes in our society would be neither wise nor necessary
as part of the effort to reduce crime

Conflict approach

Different approach to understanding armed robbery

It might note that most street criminals are poor and thus emphasize that armed
robbery is the result of the despair and frustration of living in poverty and facing a
lack of jobs and other opportunities for economic and social success.
The roots of street crime, from the perspective of conflict theory, thus lie in society at
least as much as they lie in the individuals committing such crime.
To reduce armed robbery and other street crime, conflict theory would advocate far-
reaching changes in the economic structure of society.
Symbolic interactionism

Would focus on how armed robbers make such decisions as when and where to rob
someone and on how their interactions with other criminals reinforce their own
criminal tendencies.
It would also investigate how victims of armed robbery behave when confronted by a
robber.
To reduce armed robbery, it would advocate programs that reduce the opportunities
for interaction among potential criminal offenders, for example, after-school programs
that keep at-risk youths busy in “conventional” activities so that they have less time to
spend with youths who might help them get into trouble.

Deviance

What is deviance?

Any behaviour that violates social norms - warrant disapproval from the majority

 Complex - norms vary considerably across groups, times and places.

 In other words, what one group may consider acceptable, another may consider
deviant.
 Criminal or non-criminal

Theories of deviance:

Differential-association theory:

This theory states that exposure to criminal patterns and isolation from anti-criminal
influences put people at risk of turning criminal

 Edwin Sutherland coined the phrase - to address the issue of how people learn
deviance.
 The environment = norms people learn to violate.
 Reference group = provide norms (Gangs).
 Socializing agents—parents, teachers, ministers, family, friends, co-workers, and the
media.
 Juvenile gangs provide an environment in which young people learn to become
criminals – countercultural.
 Criminal behaviour is learnt; thus, criminals constitute a special type of conformist in
that they conform to the norms of the group with which they associate.

Other factors that could influence crime:

Illegitimate opportunity structures - social settings and arrangements that offer people the
opportunity to commit particular types of crime.

White-collar crimes - crimes committed by those with high status, respectable positions as
they carry out the duties and responsibilities of their occupation.

Corporate crimes - crimes committed by a corporation through the way that it does
business as it competes with other companies for market share and profits.
Structural strain theory:

Robert K. Merton (1957), any situation in which:

Goals vs Means

 The values and goals of a society have unclear limits (have I achieved them?)
 People are unsure whether the legitimate means will allow them to achieve the goals,
or
 Legitimate opportunities for reaching the goals remain closed to a significant portion
of the population.

Merton identified the following five responses:

Conformity:

- Acceptance of the cultural goals and the pursuit of those goals through legitimate
means.

Innovation:

- Acceptance of the cultural goals but the rejection of legitimate means to achieve
them.

Ritualist:

- Involves the rejection of the cultural goals but a rigid adherence to the legitimate
means of achieving them.

Retreatism;

- Involves the rejection of both cultural values and goals, and the legitimate means of
achieving them.

Rebellion:

- Involves the full or partial rejection of both the goals and the means of attaining them
and the introduction of a new set of goals and means.

Anomie theory:

 Confusion that arises when social norms conflict or don't even exist.
 Socially accepted goals / availability of means to achieve those goals
 Marriage, Taking care of family members, Wealth/Unemployment
 Those who find the “road to riches” closed to them experience anomie.
 Individuals may employ deviant behaviours to attain their goals, retaliate against
society or merely make a point

Control theory:

Walter Reckless control theory: both inner and outer controls work against deviant
tendencies.
  People may want (sometimes) to act in deviant ways but most do not.
 They have various restraints: internal controls, such as conscience, values, integrity,
morality, and the desire to be a “good person”; and outer controls such as police,
family, friends, and religious authorities.

Travis Hirsch noted:

 That these inner and outer restraints form a person's self-control, which prevents
acting against social norms.
 The key to developing self-control is proper socialization, especially early in
childhood
 Children who lack this self-control may grow up to commit crimes and other deviant
behaviours.

Labelling theory:

A type of symbolic interaction, labelling theory concerns the meanings people derive from
one another's labels, symbols, actions and reactions.

 Begins with the assumption that no act is intrinsically criminal

 Behaviours are deviant only when society labels them as deviant
 Conforming members of society, who interpret certain behaviours as deviant and
then attach this label to individuals, determine the distinction between deviance and
non-deviance.

Questions who applies what label to whom, why they do this, and what happens as a result
of this labelling.

 Labelled people may include drug addicts, alcoholics, criminals, delinquents,

prostitutes, sex offenders and psychiatric patients.

The consequences of being labelled as deviant can be far-reaching

 Those who have negative labels usually have lower self-images, are more likely to
reject themselves, and may even act more deviant as a result of the label.
 People who accept the labelling of others; be it correct or incorrect, have a difficult
time changing their opinions of the labelled person even in light of evidence to the
contrary.