crime acts as a social function

Question 1

sociologist

Answer 1

erickson - crime can perform positive social function - agents of social control sustain a certain level of crime rather than eradicating it - society actively promotes deviance to bring about this end

durkheim - society generates deviance for its own well-being - excessive amount of crime reflected a breakdown in the collective sentiments that bound people together

Question 2

ao1

Answer 2

some societies - regulate deviance instead of eliminating it - festivals, sport - other contexts would be punished

young are given leeway to be deviant - learning to deal with strains from the transition from childhood and adulthood

Question 3

ao3

Answer 3

downes and rock - 2003 - it is one thing to assert that crime can be made to serve some social end or other once it has occurred - eg to heighten social solidarity but uniting against the offender - it is another step altogether to explain crime as promoted in advances by society to bring about the end