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SOCIAL STRUCTURAL THEORIES
The Social Structural Tradition
 The task of sociological criminology is to discover
why social animals commit antisocial acts.
The Social Structural Tradition
 Social structure:
- how society is organized by social institutions
- family, educational, religious, economic, & political institutions
- stratified based on various roles & statuses.
The Social Structural Tradition
 Structural theorists are more interested in seeking
causes of group crime rates rather than why particular
individuals commit crimes.
 The consensus or functionalist perspective is one that
views society as a system consisting of mutually
sustaining parts and characterized by broad normative
consensus.
 All the various social institutions have their own
particular specialized social functions to keep society
running smoothly.
Sociological Positivism
 Causes of crime favored by sociologists in this tradition
are compounds of a variety of social phenomena which
are summarized by terms such as “social
disorganization,” “anomie,” or “group conflict.”
 The appreciation of the social context of criminal
behavior is sociology’s greatest contribution to our
understanding of crime.
Durkheim, Modernization, & Anomie
 AnomieMeaning “lacking in rules” or “normlessness,” used to
describe the condition of normative deregulation in society.
 Mechanical solidarity exists in small, isolated & self-sufficient
prestate society in which individuals, because they share common
experiences & circumstances, share common values and develop
strong emotional ties to the collectivity.
Durkheim, Modernization, & Anomie
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Organic solidarity: Characteristic of modern societies in which
there is a high degree of occupational specialization.
Durkheim argued that because crime is found at all times and in
all societies, it is a normal and inevitable phenomenon.
Criminals and other deviants are useful in that they serve to
identify the limits of acceptable behavior.
All people are said to aspire to maximize their pleasures, but
deficiencies in “natural talent” will thwart some from attaining
their goals legitimately.
The Chicago School of Ecology
Shaw & McKay: the majority of delinquents always
came from the same neighborhoods regardless of the
ethnic composition of those neighborhoods.
The Chicago School of Ecology
 The first criminological theory to be developed in the
United States was the Chicago school of human
ecology.
Clifford Shaw & Henry McKay
 Social ecology—describes the interrelations of human
beings and the communities in which they live.
 Early social ecologists viewed the city as a super
organism with “natural areas” differentially adaptive for
different ethnic groups.
Social Disorganization
 Social disorganization: The breakdown, or serious dilution,
of the power of informal community rules to regulate
conduct.
 The mix of peoples with limited resources, bringing with
them a wide variety of cultural traditions sometimes at
odds with traditional American middle-class norms of
behavior, is not conducive to developing and/or
maintaining a sense of community.
Diagrammatic Presentation of Ecological Theory
Influx of native and
foreign immigrants
into cities looking for
work and
congregating
in poorest areas
Value conflict and
decrease in formal
and informal social
controls lead to
SOCIAL
DISORGANIZA
-TION
Deterioration of
neighborhood and
development of
delinquent
values
Delinquency
and crime
Social Disorganization
 A neighborhood in the process of losing its sense of
community = a transition zone.
 Social disorganization = the loss of neighborhood
collective efficacy.
 Collective efficacy: The shared power of a group of
connected and engaged individuals to influence an
outcome that the collective deems desirable.
 The same things that predict the loss of collective efficacy
are the same things that predict social disorganization.
Social
Disorganization
 Ecological fallacy:
We cannot make inferences about
individuals & groups on the basis of
information derived from a larger
population of which they are a part.
 How do we know that differences in
delinquency rates result from the
aggregated characteristics of
communities rather than the
characteristics of individuals selectively
aggregated into communities?
Strain Theory:
Robert Merton’s Extension of Anomie Theory
Robert Merton: Strain theory views crime as a normal
response to the conditions that limit the opportunities
for some individuals to obtain the economic success for
which we are all supposed to strive.
Anomie = structural-cultural disjunction and strain, the
way people adapt to life in the context of anomie.
Diagrammatic Presentation of Anomie/Strain Theory
Cultural and Structural Context
Middle-class
success goals
shared by all
members of
society
Limited access to
legitimate means
(education, jobs)
for some
Disjunction between
goals and means
(the ideal and
the reality)
ANOMIE
Social-psychological response
Individuals adapt to anomie by accepting or rejecting goals & means
GOALS
MEANS
Accepts
Rejects
Rejects
Accepts -------> CONFORMITY (nondeviant)
Accepts -------> RITUALISM
(deviant, noncriminal)
Rejects --------> RETREATISM (deviant, social dropout,
could be criminal)
Rejects ------ > INNOVATION (deviant, criminal)
Rejects --------> REBELLION
(deviant, wants to
substitute new goals
and means)
Accepts
Rejects
MODE OF ADAPTATION TO ANOMIE
Modes of Adaptation
 Five modes of adaptation that various people adopt in
response to social pressure
 Conformity: Accept the success goals of American
society, and the prescribed means of attaining them
 Ritualism: Rejects the cultural goals, but does not
adapt in a criminal manner.
 Innovation: Accepts the validity of cultural goals, but
rejects the legitimate means of attaining them.
Modes of Adaptation
Retreatism rejects both the cultural goals, and the
institutionalized means of attaining them; they are in
society but not of it.
 Rebellion reject both the goals and the means of capitalist
American society, but unlike retreatists, rebels wish to
substitute alternative legitimate goals and alternative
legitimate means.
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Institutional Anomie Theory
 Steven Messner and Richard Rosenfeld: Institutional
Anomie Theory (IAT) places the blame for the high
crime rate in the United States unequivocally on the
doorstep of the much-vaunted American Dream and its
capitalist underpinnings.
 High crime rates are intrinsic to the basic cultural
commitments and institutional arrangements of
American society.
 Institutional Balance of Power: Subjugation of other
institutions.
Institutional Anomie Theory
 American culture tends to devalue the non-economic
function and roles of other social institutions.
 The answer to the high crime rate in the United States
is decommodification, which refers to social policies
intended to free social relationships from economic
considerations by freeing the operation of the other
social institutions from the domination of the economy,
or to at least gain a certain degree of balance.
Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory
 Robert Agnew laid the foundation for a general strain
theory.
 Strain results from the removal of a positively valued
stimuli or the presentation of negative stimuli.
 We all experience multiple strain throughout our
lives, but the impact of strain differs according to its
magnitude, recency, duration, and clustering.
 The most important fact is not strain per se, but how
one copes with it.
Subcultural Theories:
Albert Cohen & Status Frustration
 Distinct criminal subcultures might develop,
particularly among lower-class individuals because
these are the people expected to feel the bite of
blocked opportunity more sharply.
 Albert Cohen’s book Delinquent Boys proposed a
mechanism by which lower-class youths adapt to the
limited avenues of success open to them
 Short-run hedonism: The actor is seeking immediate
gratification of his or her desires without regard for any
long term consequences.
Subcultural Theories:
Albert Cohen & Status Frustration
 Much lower-class crime and delinquency is expressive
rather than instrumental.
 Though no fault of their own, young people lack
access to middle-class avenues of approval and selfworth. Because they cannot adjust to what Cohen
calls middle-class measuring rods, they experience
status frustration.
 The real problem for Cohen is status frustration, not
blocked opportunity. Lower-class youth desire
approval and status, but because they cannot meet
middle-class criteria, they become frustrated.
Cloward & Ohlin’s
Opportunity Structure Theory
 One of the most influential extensions of strain
theory has been Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin’s
opportunity structure theory, outlined in their book,
Delinquency and Opportunity.
 To obtain and take advantage of the most rewarding
illegitimate opportunities, aspiring delinquents often
need an “in.”
 Gang types that develop from the frustration
generated by blocked opportunities: Criminal gangs,
Conflict gangs, Retreatist gangs.
Walter Miller’s Theory of Focal Concerns
 Gangs are not a reaction to status deprivation
 Miller asserted that lower-class behavior and values
must be viewed on their own terms.
 Six focal concerns that are part of a value system and a
lifestyle that has emerged from the realities of life on
the bottom rung of society
 Trouble confers status if it is the right type of
trouble.
 Toughness is very important to the status of lowerclass males.
Walter Miller’s Theory of Focal Concerns
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Smartness refers to street smarts and is the ability
to survive on the streets using one’s wits.
Excitement is the search for fun.
Fate is a belief that the locus of control is external
to oneself and a belief in “lady luck.”
Autonomy means personal freedom.
The hard-core lower class lifestyle typified by
these focal concerns catch those engaged in it in a
web of situations that virtually guarantee
delinquent and criminal activities.
Youth Gangs
Malcolm Klein defines a youth gang as:
“any denotable adolescent group who
(a) are generally perceived as a distinct aggregation
by others in the neighborhood,
(b) recognize themselves as a denotable group, and
(c) have been involved in a sufficient number of
delinquent incidents to call forth a consistent
negative response from neighborhood residents
and/or law enforcement agencies.”
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The Increasing Prevalence of Gangs
 Gangs are more prevalent in the United States
today than ever before.
 It is the neighborhood of the marginalized and
underclass that the most fertile soil for the
growth of gangs exist.
Why do Young People Join Gangs?
 Joining a gang has almost become a survival
imperative in some areas where unaffiliated youths
are likely to be victimized.
 Gang membership provides means of satisfying
belongingness needs.
 Gangs functions for many of its members as (1)
family, (2) friendship group, (3) play group, (4)
protective agency, (5) educational institution, & (6)
employer.
Girls in Gangs
 Females are a minor part of the modern gang scene.
 Girls join gangs for many of the same reasons that boys do.
 Three basic types of female gang involvement
All-female gangs
 Mixed gender gangs
 Female auxiliaries of male gangs
 The vast majority of females gang delinquency consists of nonviolent property and status offenses.
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Evaluation of Social Structural Theories
 Ecological theory brought home one of the most
universal demographic characteristics of crime, namely,
its concentration in socially disorganized areas inhabited
by economically deprived people.
 Strain theories claim to explain particular types of
crimes in terms of their prevalence in society, and not
why one individual becomes criminal and another does
not.
 General strain theory has been criticized as reductionist
because of its emphasis of attempting to explain how
people subjectively perceive and react to strain.
Evaluation of Social Structural Theories
General strain theory has been criticized as reductionist
because of its emphasis of attempting to explain how
people subjectively perceive & react to strain.
Subculture theories augment both ecological and
anomie/strain theories by introducing the idea of
subculture.
Evaluation of Social Structural Theories
Focal concerns has attracted charges of racial
insensitivity.
 Social disorganization Chicago Area Project:
Treating communities from which offenders came.
Shaw & McKay organized a number of programs aimed
at generating or strengthening a sense of community
within neighborhoods.
Summarizing Social Structural Theorie
Theory
Key Concepts
Strengths
Weaknesses
Poverty concentrates people of
different cultural backgrounds
and generates cultural conflict.
The breakdown of informal social
controls leads to social
disorganization, and peer group
gangs replace social institutions as
socializers.
Explains high crime rates
in certain areas. Accounts
for intergenerational
transmission of deviant
values and predicts crime
rates from neighborhood
characteristics.
Cannot account for
individuals and groups in
the same neighborhood
who are crime free or
why a few individuals
commit a highly
disproportionate share
of crime.
Anomie
(Durkheim)
Rapid social change leads to social
deregulation and the weakening of
restraining social norms. This
unleashes “insatiable appetites,”
which some seek to satisfy
through criminal activity.
Emphasizes the power of
norms and social solidarity
to restrain crime and
points to situations that
weaken them.
Concentrates on whole
societies and ignores
differences in areas
that are differentially
affected by social
deregulation.
Anomie/Strain
(Merton)
All members of American society
are socialized to want to attain
monetary success, but some are
denied access to legitimate means
of attaining it. These people may
then resort to crime to achieve
what they have been taught to
want.
Explains high crime rates
among the disadvantaged
and how cultural norms
create conflict and crime.
Explains various means of
adapting to strain.
Does not explain why
individuals similarly
affected by strain to
not react (adapt)
similarly.
Social
Disorganization
Summarizing Social Structural Theories
Theory
Key Concepts
Strengths
Weaknesses
Institutional
Anomie
America is literally organized
for crime due to its
overweening emphasis on the
economy and material success.
All other institutions are
devalued and must
accommodate themselves to
the requirements of the
economy.
Explains why crime
rates are higher in
America than in
other capitalist
societies. Points to
decommodi fication
as crime reduction
strategy.
Concentrates on
single cause of
crime. Should
predict high rates
of property crime in
America rather
than violent crime,
but the opposite is
true.
General
Strain
There are multiple sources of
strain, and strain differs along
numerous dimensions. Strain is
the result of negative emotions
that arise from negative
relationships with other as well
as from sociocultural forces.
Individual characteristics help
us to cope poorly or well with
strain.
Reminds us that
strain is
multifaceted and
that how we cope
with it is more
important than its
existence. Adds
individual
characteristics to
theory.
Criticized by
structural theorists
as reductionist
because it fails to
explore structural
origins of strain.
Summarizing Social Structural Theories
Theory
Key Concepts
Strengths
Weaknesses
Subcultural
Much delinquency is short-run
hedonism rather than utilitarian.
Lower-class youths cannot live up to
middle-class measuring rods and thus
develop status frustration. They seek
status in ways peculiar to the
subculture. Subcultural youths do not
have equal illegitimate opportunities
for attaining success. Those who do
join criminal gangs; those who don’t
join retreatist and conflict gangs and
engage in mindless violence and
vandalism.
Extends the scope of
anomie theory and
integrates social
disorganization theory.
Focuses on processes
by which lower-class
youths adapt to their
disadvantages and
shows that illegitimate
opportunities are also
denied to some.
Explains the patterned
way of life that
sustains delinquent
values and goals.
Explains subcultural
crime and delinquency
only. There is some
question as to whether
a distinct lower-class
culture exists in the
sense that it is
supported by
proscriptive values
that require antisocial
behavior.
Focal
Concerns
Lower-class youths live their lives
according to the focal concerns of the
neighborhoods they find themselves in.
These focal concerns lead to conflict
with the mainstream culture because
they generate antisocial behavior.
Identifies the core
values of lower-class
culture and how they
generate and
perpetuate antisocial
behavior.
Explains only lowerclass antisocial
behavior. Ignores the
structural origin of
the focal concerns.
Policy and Prevention:
Implications of Social Structural Theories
Strain theory
If the cause of crime is a disjunction between cultural values
emphasizing success for all and a social structure denying access to
legitimate means of achieving it to some, then the cure for crime is to
increase opportunities or to dampen aspirations.
Cloward & Ohlin developed a delinquency-prevention project,
known as “Mobilization for Youth” which concentrated on expanding
legitimate opportunities for disadvantaged youths.
Policy and Prevention:
Implications of Social Structural Theories
 The policy recommendation flowing from
institutional anomie theory would be those that tame
the power of the market via decommodification.
 Any policy recommendation derived from
subcultural theory would not differ in any significant
ways from those derived from ecological or
anomie/strain theories.