Durkheim's functionalist theory
- Created by: Emily Uffindell
- Created on: 11-11-14 18:49
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- Durkheim's functionalist theory
- Functionalists argue that in order to achieve social solidarity, society has two key mechanisms:
- 1. Socialisation
- This instils the shared culture into its members.
- This helps to ensure that individuals internalise the same norms and values of society.
- This will cause them to act in a way that society wants them to/requires.
- 2. Social control
- Rewards (positive sanctions for conformity)
- Punishments (negative functions) for deviance.
- 1. Socialisation
- The inevitability of crime
- Crime is inevitable and universal
- There is not one known society that doesn't have some form of crime or deviance.
- Therefore a 'crime-free' society is a contradiction to itself.
- "Crime is normal, an integral part of all healthy societies."
- It is found in all societies for 2 reasons:
- 1. Not everyone is equally effectively socialised into the norms and values of society so certain individuals will be prone to deviate.
- 2. In modern complex societies, there is a diversity of lifestyles and values.
- Different groups develop their own subcultures and therefore their norms and values are distinct.
- Although mainstream culture may regard this as deviate, people within these subcultures regard them as normal.
- In modern societies, there is a tendency towards anomie (normlessness)
- This is because the rules governing behaviour become weaker and less clear cut.
- This is because modern societies have a complex, specialised, division of labour which leads to individuals becoming increasingly different from one another.
- This is because the rules governing behaviour become weaker and less clear cut.
- Different groups develop their own subcultures and therefore their norms and values are distinct.
- There is not one known society that doesn't have some form of crime or deviance.
- Crime is inevitable and universal
- The positive functions of crime
- Boundary maintenance
- Crime produces a reaction from society, uniting its members against the wrongdoer (criminal) and reinforcing their commitment to the shared norms and values.
- It is not to make the wrongdoer suffer or mend is ways/remove crime from society..
- This may be done through the rituals of the courtroom which dramatize wrongdoing publicly and stigmatise the offender.
- Cohen: The important role played by the media in this dramatization of evil.
- In his view, media coverage of crime and deviance often creates folk devils.
- Crime produces a reaction from society, uniting its members against the wrongdoer (criminal) and reinforcing their commitment to the shared norms and values.
- Adaptation and change
- All change starts with an act of deviance.
- There must be some scope for people to challenge and change norms and values.
- Boundary maintenance
- Neither very low or a very high crime rate is desirable.
- Too much crime tears the bonds of society and causes normlessness.
- Too little means that society is repressing and controlling its members.
- Untitled
- Functionalists argue that in order to achieve social solidarity, society has two key mechanisms:
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