Functionalist perspective

Question 1

Durkheim

Answer 1

Boundary maintenance - reinforces what behaviour is acceptable or not

Question 2

Cohen

Answer 2

Warning light - crime is a sign that something in society is not functioning as it should be

Question 3

Davis / Polsky

Answer 3

Safety valve - minor crimes and acts of deviancy can prevent larger more serious crime e.g pornography prevents more serious sexual crimes

Question 4

EVAL of positive functions of crime

Answer 4

• doesn’t quantify how much crime is beneficial
• Durkheim ignores the impact that crime has on individual victims

Question 5

Merton

Answer 5

Crime is a response to strain to achieve the american dream

Question 6

Types of strain

Answer 6

Conformity - accepting goals and means
innovation - accepting goals but choosing different means
Ritualism - following means but never achieving goal
Rebellion - rejecting goal and creating own, own means
Retreatism - reject goals and means of society but do not replace them

Question 7

EVAL of Merton’s strain theory

Answer 7

Focuses on utilitarian crime and over exaggerates importance of monetary success