1. Durkheim

Question 1

1. Society’s Two Mechanism

Answer 1

• Society built on value consensus, shared norms and values
• To achieve this solidarity, society has two mechanisms…
1. Socialisation: instils the shared culture into its members.
2. Social Control: mechanisms include rewards for conformity

Question 2

2. Inevitability of Crime

Answer 2

• Functionalists believe crime is inevitable and universal

• Every known society has some level of crime and deviance
• Durkheim: ‘crime is normal… an integral part of all healthy societies’

• Two reasons why crime and deviance are found in all societies.

1. Not everyone is equally effectively socialised
2. Diversity of lifestyles and values in a modern society.
   - Subcultures may interpret normality as what society sees as deviant

• Durkheim: modern societies tend towards anomies (normlessness)

• Rules governing behaviour become weaker and less clear cut.
• This is due to modern societies have a complex, specialised division of labour, which leads to individuals becoming increasingly different from one another (weakens shared culture)

Question 3

3. Positive Functions of Crime

Answer 3

• For Durkheim, crime is inevitable but also fulfils two positive functions
1. Boundary Maintenance:
• Crime produces reaction from society.
• Unites members in condemnation of the wrongdoer
• Reinforces commitment to shared norms and values
• Durkheim: this explains the function of punishment…
- Purpose is to reaffirm society’s rules and reinforce social solidarity
- May be done through rituals of courtroom which publicly shame the offender (Cohen: media coverage of crime creates ‘folk devils)

2. Adaptation and Change
   • Durkheim: all change starts with an act of deviance.
   • Those with new ideas must not be completely stifled by the weight of social control
   • There must be some scope for them to challenge and change existing norms and values, in the first instance this will appear as deviance.
   • If those with new ideas are suppressed, society will stagnate and be unable to make necessary adaptive changes.
   • Durkheim: neither high or low levels of crime are desirable
   - Too much crime threatens to tear the bonds of society apart
   - Too little means society is repressing its members (preventing change)
   - Erikson: argued that if deviance performs positive social functions, role of the police may actually be to sustain a certain level of crime.

3 . Other Sociologists
• Davis: prostitution acts as a safety valve for the release of men’s sexual frustration without threatening the monogamous nuclear family
- Polsky: pornography safely ‘channels’ a variety of sexual desires away from alternatives such as adultery.
• Cohen: deviance is a warning that an institution is not functioning properly
- High levels of truancy may suggest problems with education system

Question 4

4. Criticisms

Answer 4

• Durkheim offers no way of knowing how much deviance is necessary for a functioning society
• Just because crime has positive functions does not explain why it exists in the first place

• Looks at functions for society as a whole but ignores how it affects different groups.
- Seeing a murder punished is beneficial for society (not the victim)

• Crime doesn’t always promote solidarity. (can promote isolation)
- E.g. women staying indoors for fear of attack.

Question 5

Summary

Answer 5

1. Society’s Two Mechanisms
2. Inevitability of Crime
3. Positive Functions of Crime
4. Criticisms