funtionalism evaluation Flashcards
Valier (2001)
Criticises Merton becuase he doesn’t believe there are only one set of goals people can strive for
Taylor et al (1973)
accuse merton of ignoring crimes of the rich while exaggerating the significance of working class crime
Reiner (1984)
defends Merton and says he did explain middle class crime by recognizing there is no limit to success so the wealthy might still be greedy for more
Evaluation of the illigitamate opportunity structure
1) difficult to accept that such a neat distinction occurs in real life
2) no discussion of female deviancy
Evaluation of Status frustration
1) no discussion of females
2) the young delinquents need to be great sociologists to work out what the middle class values are and then invert them
3) cohen fails to prove school is the place where success and failure are demonstrated
Evaluation of focal concerns
Box (1981) points out that these values could apply to all boys, not just working class ones
- [arker successfully applied the focal concerns to ‘lads’ in inner city liverpool
- downes found no evidence of young wc males having distinct values
what is an evaluation of durkheim
he doesn;t explain why some groups are more prone to deviance than others
what do right realists say about functionalists
functionalists say crime is the result of bad parenting which they agree with
what do interactionists say bout functionalism
they ignore the media and human interaction
what do feminists say about functionalism
girls are ignored
what 3 things to marxists say about functionalism
- criticise them for saying the law represents everyones interests
- crimes of the powerul are ignored
- they ignore power. Some groups have more influence over the law making process than others. they criticise the idea of concesus as those at the top make the rules and then enforce them on everyone else
