c&d useful and necessary

• Crime and deviance reinforce the consensus values, norms and behaviour of the majority non-deviant population. The difference between deviant behaviour and non-deviant behaviour are reinforced - this is known as boundary maintenance.
• Durkheim said that deviance allows for social change to occur. If society reacts positively to deviant behaviour, it starts the process for that behaviour to be seen as non-deviant in the future.
• However, Durkheim said crime becomes dysfunctional when the level of crime is too high or too low.

  • Too high, and it threatens social order.
  • Too low, and there's no social change.