Functionalist Explanations

• Functionalist explanations


  Focus on the work of three individuals: Emile Durkheim, Robert K Merton and Albert Cohen
• Emile Durkheim


  • Argued that crime and deviance was a result of the changing norms and values of society
  • Crime and deviance performed several functions for society
• Value consensus


  Society's members agree upon shared norms and values which act as a form of social control and allow society to function harmoniously
• Too much deviance from norms and values

  Leads to anomie - the breakdown of norms that control social behaviour
• Not enough deviance


  Society's norms and values are too controlled, causing society to stagnate
• Positive functions of crime and deviance

  • Helps ensure boundary maintenance as members of society react to restore common bonds
  • Some deviance is desirable as it helps society adapt and change
• Robert K Merton


  Took a standard functionalist view that there was a value consensus - we all share the same norms, values and life goals
• American Dream


  Belief that through hard work, everyone can have a comfortable life with their own home and access to consumer goods
• Merton's 5 ways people respond to the strain between goals and means


  • Conformity
  • Innovation
  • Ritualism
  • Retreatism
  • Rebellion
• Subcultural explanations


  Focus on the idea that crime is committed by groups that have their own norms and values that differ from mainstream society
• Albert Cohen


  • Thinks everyone learns the same values and goals through socialisation, but working-class boys are less likely to achieve at school due to cultural deprivation
  • They form delinquent subcultures to gain status, adopting an alternative status hierarchy