SOC 2510 Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: Anomie, Social Inequality, Social Control
19 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Sociologists began to look at the wider relationship between crime and social structure. 2 broad theoretical perspectives guided this work: consensus perspective: (functionalism) assumes that societies have a tendency to maintain themselves in a state of relative equilibrium through mutually adjustive and supportive interaction of their principal institutions. It is not the majority but rather the most powerful whose values and concerns are represented in the justice system. Strain theory: proposition that people feel strain when they are exposed to cultural goals they are unable to reach because they do not have access to culturally approved means of achieving those goals. Crime occurs when something unusual happens that affects these institutions (family, education, government, religion, economy) There must be a balance between functional and dysfunctional aspects of deviance. Anomie: a concept developed by emile durkheim to describe an absence of clear societal norms and values. Heterogeneity and increased division of labor weakened traditional societal norms and encouraged individualism.
