Functionalist Theories

• To achieve social solidarity:

  1. Socialisation
  2. Social Control - mechanisms for positive sanction and negative sanctions
• Durkheim 1893: 'crime is normal... an integral part of all healthy society'
• Why does crime occur according to functionalism?

  1. Some are not effectively socialised
  2. Diversity of subcultures
• Durkheim: modern societies tend towards anomie as the rules governing behaviour become less clear cut and weaker as modern societies have a complex, specialised division of labour that leads people to become increasingly different from eachother
• Anomie = normlessness
• Positive Functions of Crime:

  1. Boundary Maintenance
  2. Adaptation and Change
• Boundary Maintenance: punishment for condemnation to reaffirm society's shared rules and reinforce social solidarity
• Cohen 1972: media plays the important role of the 'dramatisation of evil'. Media coverage of crime and deviance creates 'folk devils'
• Adaptation and Change: deviance can point to where institutions are failing causing change. Without society would stagnate.
• Durkheim level of crime: both high and low levels of crime are undesirable in society as too much crime threatens to tear the bonds of society apart. Too little crime means that society is repressing and controlling its members too much, stifling individual freedom and preventing change.
• Davis 1937;1961: prostitution acts as a 'safety valve' for the release of mens sexual frustrations without threatening the monogamous nuclear family
• Polsky 1967: porn safely 'channels' a variety of sexual desires away from alternatives like adultery which poses a threat to the nuclear family
• Erikson 1966: argues that if crime is beneficial to society - society must be organised to promote deviance. Function of agencies of social control may sustain a level of crime rather than rid society of it.