Durkheim's functionalist theory

Question 1

what do functionalists see society based on?

Answer 1

• value consensus
• members of society have a shared common culture
• sharing the same culture produces social solidarity

Question 2

functionalists argue in order to achieve this solidarity, society has what 2 functions?

Answer 2

• Socialisation instils the shared culture into its members, helps to ensure that individuals internalise the same norms and values
• Social control mechanisms include rewards for conformity and punishments for deviance

Question 3

The inevitability of crime

how do functionalists regard crime?

Answer 3

• While they see too much crime as destabilising society, they also see crime as inevitable and universal

Question 4

The inevitability of crime

What are two reasons why crime is found in every society?

Answer 4

• Not everyone is effectively socialisied into the shared norms and values, so people are prone to deviate
• There is a diversity of lifestyles and values. Groups develop their own subcultures with distinctive norms and values, and what those members may regard as normal, mainstream culture may see as deviant

Question 5

The inevitability of crime

In Durkeim’s view, modern socities tend towards what?

Answer 5

• Anomie - the rules governing behaviour become weaker and less clear cut
• This is because modern socities have a complex division of labour, which leads people to becoming increasingly different from one another
• Results in higher amounts of deviance

Question 6

The positive functons of crime

What are the positive functions?

Answer 6

• Boundary maintenance
• Adaptation and change
• Safety valve
• Warning device

Question 7

The positive functons of crime

Boundary maintance?

Answer 7

• Crime produces a reaction from society uniting its members in condemnation of the wrongdoer and reinforcing their commitment to the shared norms and values
• For Durkheim, the function of punishment is not to make the wrongdoer suffer but to reaffirm society’s shared rules and reinforce social solidarity
• E.G. the courtroom dramatises wrongdoing and reaffirms the values of the law

Question 8

The positive functons of crime

Adaptation and Change?

Answer 8

• Durkheim - all change starts with an act of deviance
• People with new ideas must not be restrained by the weight of social control
• Must be some scope for them to challenge the exisiting norms and values
• For Durkhiem, neither a very high or very low level of crime is desirable

Question 9

The positive functons of crime

Safety valve?

Answer 9

• Davis (1937;1961)
• Prositituion acts as safety valve for the release of men’s sexual fustrations without threatening the monogamous nuclear family

Question 10

The positive functons of crime

Warning device?

Answer 10

• Albert Cohen
• Warning that an institution is not functioning properly
• E.G. high truancy rates tell us the education system is failing

Question 11

The positive functons of crime

Societies also manage and regulate deviance rather than seeking to eliminate it entirely, for example?

Answer 11

Demonstrations, carnivals, festivals, sport and student rag weeks all liscence misbehaviour that in another context might be punished

Question 12

The positive functons of crime

Criticisms?

Answer 12

• No way of knowing how much is the right amount
• Functionalism looks at what functions crime serves for society as a whole and ignores how it could effect groups/individuals within it
• Crime doesn’t always promote solidarity