Durkheim's Functionalist Perspective

Question 1

Why is crime inevitable?

Answer 1

Not everyone is equally socialised into the shared norms and values, making some people prone to deviate

In complex societies, groups may develop their own subcultures with their own distinctive norms and values which differ from mainstream society

Question 2

Why do modern societies lean towards anomie?

Answer 2

Have a complex division of labour causing individuals to become increasingly different from eachother. This weakens the collective consciousness and causes higher levels of deviance

Question 3

Positive functions of crime: boundary maintenance

Answer 3

Crime produces a shared reaction by uniting society in condemning the wrong doer and reinforcing shared commitment to norms and values

Cohen- media plays an important role in ‘dramatisation of evil’

Question 4

Positive functions of crime: Adaptation and change

Answer 4

All change starts with acts of deviance so there must be so scope to challenge and change existing norms e.g. new religions start off as being deviant

Question 5

Signals of malfunction of the social system

Answer 5

Too much crime which threatens to tear apart the bonds of society

Too little crime indicates that society is repressing members and there is a lack of personal freedoms

Question 6

Positive functions of deviance according to Davis and Polsky

Answer 6

Davis- prostitution acts as a safety valve for the release of men’s sexual frustrations without threatening the nuclear family

Polsky- pornography safely channels sexual desires away from alternatives like adultery which would threaten the nuclear family

Question 7

Criticisms

Answer 7

Durkheim does not specify how much deviance is too much

Ignores the impacts of crime on individuals in favoir of focusing on how it benefits society e.g. murder is not functional for the victim