Chicago School: Symbolic Interactionism Approach

The Chicago School is known for its urban sociology and for developing Symbolic Interactionism approach. The Chicago School put a lot of attention to the human behavior, which would be determined by social structures and physical environmental factors than the genetic and personal characteristics. The Chicago School believed that the natural environment which the community inhabits is a major factor in shaping human behavior, and that the city functions as a microcosm for human interactions, relations and stability. The Chicago School was set up and worked at a very unique time in human social history: the establishment and the settlement of a major U.S city. Its main focus and reputation has been upon the premise and theory that it is not biology, genetics etc that determine human behaviour be rather responses to environment and situational circumstances.
Functionalists would believe that crime and deviance are guaranteed; moreover functionalists would see crime and deviance as necessary for a society to function.
Functionalists would believe that crime shows individuals within a society what’s right and wrong. Functionalist Theory, labeling or conflict theory looks at the implementation of crime and crime control procedures rather than attempting to explain the causes of criminal behavior. Functionalists would believe that crime can lead to social change, furthermore crime proves to society that the government does not overly country its people. It is apparent that crime helps the economy stabilize and grow due to crime creating new jobs, such as, law enforcement agencies. Although Functionalists often rely on statistical evidence to back their ides, however the the theory can not explain why individuals turn to crime inpaticular those individuals from a similar background, which is considered a weakness for functionalism (and all sociological approaches). It is apparent that that functionalism deals with probabilities and not individual
actions.

What is the conflict theory approach to crime and deviance and why does this view crime as a function of oppression?
Conflict Theory looks at social and economic aspects as the causes of crime and deviance. As we have already established functionalism sees crimes as a positive thing in society where as Conflict theorists do not see crime and deviance as positive functions in society. Conflict Theory would go as far to say that it is evidence of inequality in the system, Conflict Theory would sagest that crime in a society is a function of oppression allowing the rich to prosper and the poor to struggle. Conflict Theory work on two levels, firstly, it can explain why people behave in a deviant manor and secondly, it can be used to explain why groups are stereotyped and frowned upon and a specific narrative is used to explain their actions as an affront to ‘common sense’. A Conflict Theorist would see that society who holds the power are also the ones who makes the laws concerning crime. They make laws that will benefit them, while the powerless classes who lack the resources to make such decisions suffer the consequences. The crack-cocaine punishment disparity remained until 2010, when President Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act, which decreased the disparity to 1 to 18 (The Sentencing Project 2010). Conflict approach to this is the Marxist approach and Marxist would believe that people are forced into crime, through class struggles, those from a lower class are held within their situation without being able to move. Because of this Marxist would believe capitalism would not work as it forces poverty which results in crime.