Functionalism
- Created by: alicegrieve
- Created on: 01-03-18 13:55
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- FUNCTIONALIST
- THE 2 FUNCTIONS
- they see low level crime as inevitable & necessary to society, this operates in 2 ways...
- 1) MAINTENANCE FUNCTION= maintains social solidarity & collective conscience, strengthens collective values, can act as a 'safety valve'
- 2) ADAPTIVE FUNCTION= help adapt & change laws, some crime necessary to instigate social change & allow law to develop & evolve with demands of society
- DURKHEIM
- crime reinforces the collective conscience & enables the law to reflect wider social change (maintenance & adaptive)
- people commit crime as they are detached from the collective conscience - leads to social isolation (anomie) which is when criminal activity occurs
- MERTONS STRAIN THEORY
- recognises that society is unequal, believes that the inequality means that some people are unable to achieve society's 'shared goals' as they dont have the legitimate means of doing so
- the gap between what people want & where they are causes strain
- EVALUATION
- TAYLOR criticises the notion of shared goals & values
- marxists say there's no collective conscience or social solidarity, only focuses on WC crime
- feminists say it's malestream
- THE 2 FUNCTIONS
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