Functionalism

• Durkheim

  • Crime serves a purpose.
  • Durkheim identified a positive and negative side of crime- crime helps society remain dynamic but too much can lead to social disruption.
  • Durkheim believed that the function of punishment was not to remove crime but to reinforce norms, values and beliefs.
• Durkheim: Boundary maintenance

  Boundary maintenance is when a crime produces a reaction among society and brings together societies members against the wrongdoer, reminding them of right and wrong.
• Durkheim: social change

  Social change suggests that for society to progress, individuals with new ideas must challenge existing norms. At first this will be seen as deviant. An example of this would be gay pride.
• Durkheim: safety valve

  Safety valve refers to providing a relatively harmless way for someone to express their discontent.
• Durkheim: warning light

  warning light is when crime indicates that there is an aspect of society that is not working.
• Durkheim strengths

  • Durkheim was the first to recognise that crime can have positive functions for society
• Durkheim weaknesses

  • Durkheim does not look at the causes of crime.
  • Durkheim suggests crime strengthens social solidarity but overlooks how it can isolate and scare people.
  • Durkheim argues that a certain amount of crime is healthy but fails to indicate how much.
• Merton

  • Merton argued that deviance resulted from culture and structure of society.
  • Members of society are placed in different positions in the social structure (different classes) meaning they do not have the same opportunities. Merton refers to this as the strain theory.
  • Those who are at the bottom of the social structure find it the hardest to succeed and therefore are the ones who are more likely to commit crime.
• Merton: 5 ways to respond to strain theory

  Conformity: members of society conform to the norms (majority of society)
• Merton: 5 ways to respond to strain theory

  Ritualism: rejecting the goals but going along with the institutionalised means (society and school).
• Merton: 5 ways to respond to strain theory

  Innovation: commitment to the cultural goals but reject the conventional means of achieving these. This means they turn to illegal action eg. theft/fraud.
• Merton: 5 ways to respond to strain theory

  Retreatism: a small number of people reject both the goals and the means, by dropping out of society. They often take up drugs/alcohol.
• Merton: 5 ways to respond to strain theory

  Rebellion: People may rebel and seek to replace shared goals with radical alternatives. May use violent methods to achieve this.
• Merton strengths

  • Merton shows how both normal and deviant behaviour arise from the same goals. Conformists and innovators both pursue 'money success' but by different means.
  • Merton explains the pattern shown in official statistics. Working class crime rates are higher because they have less opportunity to achieve wealth.
• Merton weaknesses

  • Merton ignores crimes of the wealthy and over predicts the amount of working class crime.
  • Merton sees deviance solely as an individual response ignoring the group deviance that takes place eg. gangs.
  • Merton focuses on crimes with an economic motive and ignores ones without eg. vandalism.