Functionalism Theories

• Durkheim Functionalism:

  Strengths:

  • Durkheim was the first to recognise that crime can have positive functions for society e.g. reinforcing boundaries between right and wrong by uniting people against the wrongdoers.
• Durkheim Functionalism:

  Limitations:

  • Durkheim claims that society requires a certain amount of deviance to function but offers no way of knowing how much is the right amount
  • While crime might be functional for some, its not functional for victims.
• Merton Strain theory:

  Strengths:

  • Shows how both deviant and criminal behaviour arise from the same goals. Conformists and innovators both pursue ‘money success’, but by different means.
  • Explains patterns shown in official statistics: most crime is property crime because society values wealth so highly; working-class crime rates are higher, because they have less opportunity to obtain wealth
  • Explains why crime rates are high among the poor.
• Merton Strain theory:

  Limitations:

  • Merton ignores crimes of the wealthy and over-predicts the amount of working class crime.
  • He sees deviance solely as an individual response, ignoring the group deviance of delinquent subcultures.
  • Merton focuses on utilitarian crime, e.g. theft, ignoring crimes wth no economic motive e.g. vandalism.
• Subculture Theory:

  Strengths:

  • There theories show how subcultures perform a function for their members but offering solutions to the problem of achieving status.
  • Cloward and Ohlin show how different types of neighbourhood give rise to different illegitimate opportunities and different subcultures (criminal, conflict, retreatist)
• Subculture Theory:

  Limitation:

  • Like Merton, they ignore crimes of the wealth and over-predicts the amount of working-class crime.
  • They assume everyone starts with mainstream goals and turns to a subculture when they fail to achieve them. But some people don’t share how goals in the first place; they may be attracted to crime for other reasons.
  • Actual subcultures are not as clear-cut as Cloward and Ohlin claim. Some show characteristics of all three types: criminal, conflict and retreatist.