Functionalist Perspective Flashcards
What’s the difference between crime and deviance?
Crime is breaking the law whilst deviance is going against societal norms and values.
What type of theory is functionalism?
A consensus structuralist theory. This means they see crime and deviance as being socially constructed.
What did Durkheim say about crime and deviance?
Its an inevitable feature of society as individuals are exposed to different situations and not everyone is equally committed to the norms and values of society. However he did believe that there were benefits to it.
What is Sarah’s Law?
Also known as the child sex offenders disclosure scheme, the Home Office developed a scheme which allows parents, careers and guardians to formally ask the police to tell them if a specific person has a record for a child sex offence. They have to keep the information they learn private and it was developed in order to help children. It is available in England, Scotland and Wales but not Northern Ireland.
What is the background behind Sarah’s Law?
It was developed after the murder of Sarah Payne by a convicted pedophile after her mother campaigned to have a scheme similar to Megan’s Law in the US.
What are some concerns with Sarah’s Law?
There have been fears it would cause pedophiles to go under ground or cause vigilante attacks and the parents do have to keep any information they find private.
How did the Soham murders change the law?
After two girls were murdered by caretaker Ian Huntley, DBS checks were introduced to make sure people around children in education didn’t have a criminal background like Ian Huntley did and was still employed by a school.
What were Durkheim’s 4 positives of crime and deviance?
- Collective conscience. 2. Enables social change. For example the Soham murders or people like the suffragettes. 3. Acts as a safety valve. Deviance allows people to let out their stress without resorting to extreme violence such a protests. 4. Acts as a warning device.
What’s a Marxist critism of Durkheim’s ideas on crime and deviance?
They would say that it just maintains social inequality, blaming W/C people for crime and creating a false class consciousness.
What did Robert Merton come up with?
Strain Theory. This is the idea that a feeling of anomie arose when individuals could not match with the means and goals which society sets its members. The main goal was material success. He came up with 5 modes of adaptation.
What are the 5 modes of adaptation?
This is what Merton believes are the different peoples responses to strain theory. 1. Conformity. 2. Innovation. The person accepts the goals of society but uses different means to reach them such as criminal behaviour. 3. Ritualism. The means are used but the person gives up the goals, for example a teacher who does their job for the salary but does not care if the student succeeds or not. 4. Retreatism. The individual rejects the goals and means of society eg alcoholics and drug addicts. 5. Rebellion. Both the goals and means are rejected and substituted by new ones for example political activists or monks.
What are 5 criticisms of Merton?
- It takes crime stats at face value and does not consider that they may not show the full picture. 2. It presents crime as a working class issue, they may feel the strain but they are not the only class committing crime. 3. It assumes that everyone shares the goal of material success. 4. It only counts for utiltiriartian crime- crime with a financial gain. 5. Marxists argue that it ignores repressive laws brought in by the working class to criminalize the poor and not the rich.
What is a real life example of status frustration?
The lootings in 2012.
What did Cohen come up with?
He argued that the working class believe in the goals if society but their experiences in education and living poor do not give them legitimate means to obtain these goals. They experience status frustration as they react to this situation by developing their own values and from a delinquent subculture, this a reversal of accepted forms of behaviour.
What did Hirschi come up with?
He believes that people don’t turn to crime despite the temptation because they have strong social bonds which makes them less likely to turn to crime. Socialization of the family is greatly important in this, those who are socialized poorly often develop weak bonds. He came up with 4 bonds of attachment.
