Using Material from Item a and Elsewhere Assess the View That the Role of Access to Opportunity Structures Causes Crime and Deviance.

Using material from item A and elsewhere assess the view that the role of access to opportunity structures causes crime and deviance.

According to Item A functionalists see society as a stable system based on shared values and crime and deviance disrupts this stability. Nevertheless, they recognise that deviance is both inevitable and functional to society. Crime is where an individual commits and act that violates the law. Deviance is behaviour that does not conform to the norms of a society or group. It is a social construction – it is defined/ created by social groups. Opportunity structures can be described as a factor, situation or pathway which can lead towards or away from deviant or criminal behaviour, for example if someone does not gain access to the legitimate opportunity structure of education to achieve goals they may look to other, illegitimate opportunities and which can lead to them committing crime or engaging in deviant behaviour.

Robert Merton supports the role of access to opportunity structures in causing crime and deviance. He argues that unequal access to legitimate opportunity structures is the cause of this behaviour. Merton’s 'Strain theory and anomie' argues that deviance arises from the structure of society. He developed the functionalist theory of deviance to attempt to explain why deviance occurs in the first place. He argues that people engage in deviant behaviour because they are unable to achieve socially approved goals by legitimate means. His explanation combines two factors, these are structural (societies unequal opportunity structure) and cultural (the strong emphasis on success goals and weaker emphasis on legitimate means to achieve them). Deviance is the result of strain between these factors, the goals the culture encourages individuals to achieve are legitimately limited due to the unequal opportunity structure.

Merton argues that an individual’s position in the social structure affects their...