Functionalist Theories of Crime

"Too much crime threatens to tear society apart, too little means society represses individuals' individuality and expression - it controls it's members."

"Deviance is integral to society - not all is bad"

Social Solidarity: people socialised into shared value consensus. Social control rewards conformity and punishes deviance. 

Inevitability of crime: due to unequal/ineffective socialisation

Anomie: modern society has weaker norms and values, therefore a reduced collective consciousness, leading to normlessness. 

Boundary Maintenance: crime and punishments reinforce commitment to a shared value consensus. Society is reuinted in "condemnation of a wrong-doer."

• Jo Cox murder: fund established in her memory to be given to three non-proft groups - Hope Not Hate (anti-extremism), Royal Voluntary Service (benefiting the elderly), White Helmets (Syrian volunteer search and rescue workers) - which raised £500,000 in one day, £1 million by end of week
• Jo Cox murder: street parties, picnics, gatherings in churchs/mosques/synagogues to commemorate her life

Adaptation and Change - all change starts with deviance - society makes adaptive changes. 

• Rosa Parks: sparked Montgomery Bus Boycott - led to Civil Rights Movement 

• Davis: prostitution is a safety valve - release for men's sexual frustration but no threat to nuclear family
• Polsky: *********** = no adultery
• Cohen: deviance = warning an institution does not work. 
  • High truancy = problem with education
• Erikson: society promotes deviance because of its positive functions
  • Police/social control agencies exist to sustain a certain level of crime, not get rid of it

• Crime does not intend to strengthen society
  • It exists because society is bad, not planned
• Crime = isolation, not social solidarity
  • E.g. women stay inside to avoid attacks 
• Ignores how crime affects individuals 
  • Punishing murderer reinforces society but not good for the victim