Sociology:Outline and assess Structuralist theories of crime and deviance.

All Structuralist theories of crime and deviance seem to suggest that crime is socially constructed rather than focused on the individual. Albert Cohen, combining Structuralist and sub cultural theories drew on Merton's idea of strain but criticized Merton's ideas of crime being an individual response and believed that he ignored non-utilitarian crimes such as vandalism and joy-riding. Cohen was particularly interested in deviance which was not economically motivated but done simply for the thrill of …

…that he discovered some residants of a working class area did not believe it was wrong to commit some crimes, suchaas stealing from an unoccupied house. Other sociologists however such as Braithwaite, argue against Miller's theory, believing that crimes that involved causing direct harm to somebody are seen as wrong by all classes in our society. Notes I had a B for this essay. A conclusion would bring it up to a B+ or A.