Functionalist theories of crime
- Created by: AislingAnn
- Created on: 13-09-22 17:10
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- Functionalist theories of crime
- Functionalist approaches to deviance
- macro-perspective
- More interested in the social structures and processes that lead to deviance than individual motivations
- Assume that everyone in a culture shares a common set of norms and values.
- Collective Conscience
- Maintain the balance of society.
- Collective Conscience
- Sometimes, when social order is out of balance, a state of normlessness or anomie exists.
- Communities no longer exercise control and people can become deviant or criminal.
- Emile Durkheim on deviance
- Believed crime to serve a social function for society.
- Identifies crime as being a safety valve
- People can express their discontent or satisfy needs safely e.g Cohen and prostitution
- Crimes can be a form of warning that some element is not working well, so society can create strategies or policies to deal with them.
- Crime and Deviance can be creative and good for society as it promotes social change
- Social reformers like Gandhi, suffragettes and Nelson Mandela were imprisoned for breaking laws in their lifetimes
- Crime and deviance can be destructive.
- Rapid social change and disorganisation leads to a state of 'anomie'
- Deviance strengthens social bonds
- When people share opinions of disproval they feel closer to each other
- Crime sets boundaries.
- People know what is not accepted.
- Responses to crime can initiate social change
- Identifies crime as being a safety valve
- Durkheim identified various types of criminal
- Genetic criminals who have a biological reason for their crimes
- Functional rebels who act to identify a strain in the social system
- Skewed deviants who are improperly socialised.
- These can be dealt with through social control
- Believed crime to serve a social function for society.
- Robert K Merton and social strain theory
- Based on Durkheim's writing e.g anomies and skewed deviants
- Structuralist
- Whilst many people have the 'American Dream' as a goal, not everyone has the means to achieve it.
- Those who do not have these means may resort to crime to achieve these goals. Those who do have the means, will stick to social norms.
- Conformity
- People cope by following the rules in the hope of success
- Innovation
- People are committed to their social values, but seek alternate ways of achieving wealth and success
- Ritualism
- People just 'go through the motions' without real expectations and gain satisfaction in other ways.
- Retreatism
- People reject the goal and the methods, so they may become drug addicts or turn to alternative lifestyles
- Rebellion
- People aim to replace shared values with alternatives and may even use violence to get there.
- Conformity
- Those who do not have these means may resort to crime to achieve these goals. Those who do have the means, will stick to social norms.
- Albert Cohen and functionalist subcultural theory
- Criticised Merton as deviance is not individual, but collective
- Working-class males are particularly linked to crime and gang culture
- Much delinquent and criminal behaviour is not about acquiring goods or wealth, but is destructive, including self-destructive
- Merton's analysis is 'monocultural'.
- He assumes that everyone shares the same values, but some groups within society have differing value systems, and these are subcultures.
- Criticised Merton as deviance is not individual, but collective
- Functionalist approaches to deviance
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