Anomie and Strain Emile Durkheim and Robert Merton
Anomie and Strain Emile Durkheim and Robert Merton Understanding Criminology 11 th November 2008
Lecture Outline • Emile Durkheim – Functionalism – Crime as normal – Anomie • Robert Merton – Strain – Adaptations
Emile Durkheim • 1858 -1917 • Early pioneer of sociology • Positivist • Functionalist • Macro-level sociology
Social cohesion • How could society hold together during a period of fundamental and rapid social and economic change?
Functionalism • Societies should be analysed as a organic whole: each aspect of society should be analysed with reference to its function for society as a whole • Society is essentially consensual • As deviance was universal across all societies, it must have a function: crime is normal
Crime is normal • What function can crime have to society as a whole? • Crime, and the reaction to it: – Reinforced collective sentiment • "Crime brings together upright consciences and concentrates them" – Defined the boundaries of acceptable behaviour • “We must not say that an action shocks the common consciousness because it is criminal, but rather that it is criminal because it shocks the common consciousness” – Represented a litmus test for legal codes
Functional Analysis of Deviance • Example: prostitution (Kingsley Davis, 1937) • Prostitution: a safety valve against sexual frustration leading to assault • Prostitution is functional to the nuclear family • Adultery would threaten an essential societal institution • Stigmatisation (informal disapproval) of prostitution confirms the collective approval of monogamy
Pathological levels of crime? • Too little crime? – Social control is too excessive – Social stagnation • Too much crime? – Society’s capacity to regulate is being swamped: social cohesion is at risk • There is, therefore, a functionally desirable level of crime
How can Durkheim explain the continued existence of crime? • Key concept: Anomie (normlessness) • Anomie as a characteristic of industrial societies – Unfettered individualism • Anomie as a characteristic of individuals – “A process whereby social norms lose their hold over individual / group behaviour” • A symptom of underdeveloped division of labour
The Division of Labour • Mechanical Solidarity – Pre-industrial – Simple normative system: a unified, simplified moral code • Organic Solidarity – Industrial society (though yet to be achieved) – Complex division of labour – Conscious Collective: social cohesion achieved despite moral diversity • Anomie: results from the decline of mechanical solidarity, and the lack of development of regulatory forces • Individualism > Social Responsibility
Robert Merton and Strain • Shared Durkheim’s functionalist concerns – Esp. Individualism v. Societal Needs • Anomie: a strain existing between two powerful sets of normative codes – Goals – material success, power etc. – Means of achieving them legitimately • The vast majority of the (American) population by definition could not achieve the goals
F. D. Roosevelt Al Capone
Merton’s adaptations to Strain Response: Means Goals Conformity + + Innovation - + Ritualism + - Retreatism - - Rejects means Rejects goals Rebellion
Criticisms of Merton • Unwarranted assumption of shared goals – Not, though, ignoring the possibility of conflict • Overly deterministic: everything explained by socialisation: no conscious choice • Paradoxically, also underplays the importance of structural position e. g. the mediation of expectations in different class positions • Does not account for different types of “innovation” • Subjectivity absent
Criticisms of Functionalism • Consensus based – Functional in whose interests? – Conservative – Ignores conflict • Tautological: Social Cohesion Deviance Social Cohesion • Deterministic: little room for consideration of individual agency (choices) • Other structural explanations still possible e. g. Marxism • Inability to distinguish the functional from the dysfunctional
- Slides: 15