Functionalism Intro into crime and deviance

Question 1

Why do people commit crimes?

Answer 1

Poverty, peer pressure, poor socialisation, self defence, addictions

Question 2

Words associated with functionalism

Answer 2

social solidarity, anome, consensus, norms, organic analogy, collective conscience

Question 3

What are the two types of control?

Answer 3

Formal social control - Laws and rules are enforced by agents in society; police and the criminal justice system. These forms of social control are official.

Informal social control - Norms and values are enforced by other agents in society; public opinion is expressed with non-verbal and verbal communication. These forms of social control are unofficial.

Question 4

What 4 things did Durkheim argue crime was?

Answer 4

Inevitable
Universal
Relative
Functional

Question 5

3 Functions crime has in society

Answer 5

1. Safety valve
2. Boundary Maintanance
3. Adaption and Change

Question 6

What is the effect of crime on the individual, society and the perpetrator?

Answer 6

Individual - Fear, anger and frustration
Harm / suffering / loss of money/ inconvenience etc.
Lack of trust in others or the society

Society - Lack of confidence/blame in the authorities
The need for jobs is created (police, CJS, law)
Fear and concern
Integration or isolation? Both?
Adds political pressure
Allows change in society – changes values

Perpetrator - Status (gain or loss)
Money
Punishment
Loss of freedom

Perpetrator -

Question 7

Whats the difference between crime and deviance?

Answer 7

Crime - The breaking of a law
(remember that a law is only something which the society has set out as being important).
Newburn 2007 (crime is a label given to certain behaviours prohibited by the state)

Deviance - The breaking of a norm
(remember that sometimes this will also be a crime and sometimes just an expectation within the society).
Downes and Rock (2007) deviance is complicated. - It depends on context.

Question 8

What did Durkeim say about crime?

Answer 8

• Durkheim claimed crime is healthy for a society, therefore crime can be functional.
• If crime is regulated and managed by the relevant social institutions, it can be beneficial in maintaining the value consensus.
• Functionalists argue there are three functions of crime.

Question 9

What are the three functions of crime according to functionalists?

Answer 9

1. Boundary maintenance
2. Warning device
3. Safety valve

Question 10

What is boundary maintenance?

Answer 10

-Durkheim says when people commit crime, they are punished by the criminal justice system.
-This reminds other citizens of the value consensus which therefore strengthens its effectiveness.
-Crime creates social solidarity, a sense of togetherness, in society that serves to bind the wider community together.

Question 11

What is warning device?

Answer 11

-Durkheim argues this is when society needs to adapt and change as a result of crime.
-All change starts with deviance or in extreme cases, criminal activity.
Individuals must be able to think differently if society wants to evolve further.
-Criminal activity can sometimes show that a current social policy has lost its function in society.

Question 12

What is safety valve?

Answer 12

Functionalist Davis suggests that a certain amount of deviant behaviour can be beneficial to the maintenance of social order.
Davis uses the continuation of prostitution as evidence to support his claim.

e.g prostitutes

Question 13

Strain theory

Answer 13

-Merton tried to focus on why people committed crime, rather than the functions it performed for society.
-Merton discusses the ‘American Dream’; the key principle of the American Dream is that everyone can achieve the cultural goal of material success through the means of hard work and determination

Question 14

What are the responses to the strain theory?

Answer 14

1. Conformists
   - Those who fail to achieve success but still believe that hard work will help them achieve the goal of material success
2. Rebels
   -Those who react badly to not achieving the cultural goal of material success and therefore abandon it all together and create new goals
3. Innovators
   -Those who realise that they cannot achieve material success by conforming to the conventional means of hard work.
   Instead, they create new ways to achieve wealth, which may lead to criminal activity.
4. Ritualists
   -Those who cope with failure by forgetting about the cultural goal.
   They compensate for their failure by obsessing over the means and therefore work too hard and become jobsworths who don’t relate to other staff members.
   They irritate others and therefore do not progress in the workplace.
5. Retreatists
   - Those who give up on the goals as they lack the self-belief to achieve them.
   They also reject the means as they are no longer relevant to them.