Crime and Deviance Functionalist

Crime and Deviance Functionalist

1. Durkheim

   • Collective Conscioussness
     • This creates social solidarity
   • His main arguments
     • All societies have to have rules. Rules are inevitably broken, therefore deviance is normal.
     • Deviance needs to be controlled in order to preserve social order
     • Deviance can also be functional for society
       • deviant behaviour can be a source of beneficial social changes
       • the condemnation and punishment of deviants helps to unify the rest of society and establish moral boundaries.
   • Problems with Durkheim
     • How do we distinguish between beneficial and non-beneficial forms of deviance?
     • Are the rules of society the result of moral consensus or do some groups have more influence than others?
     • How do we explain the fact that some individuals are more deviant than others?

2. Merton

   • Social Structure
     • Deviance forms from pressures of social structure
       • Deviance does not arise from within the deviant, but arrives due to a pressure from within the social structure
         • This is the strain to anomie
   • Anomie
     • Definiton: when individuals become uncertain about what norms to follow
   • Criticisms
     • Does not fully explain why different individuals adopt different responses
     • Focuses on individuals rather than groups. Some forms of deviance eg juvenile crime may involve a group response to social position (subcultural explanation)
     • Does not explain crime which is not motivated by monetary gain
     • Laurie Taylor
       • Fruit Machine
         • Conformists
         • Innovators
         • Ritualists
         • Retreatists
         • Rebels
   • Evaluation
     • Moves away from idea of deviants as abnormal individuals (biological and psychological approaches)
     • Recognises links between social structure and deviance
     • Provided the basis for later theories of deviance eg subcultural theories and left realism