He sees it as a natural part of a healthy society.
What does normlessness mean?
Anomie
What leads to an anomie?
A highly specialised division of labour and a diversity of subcultures which leads to individuals becoming increasingly different from one another and the shared rules of behaviour becoming less clear.
Who suggested about an anomie?
Durkheim
What were Durkheim 2 functions of crime?
Boundary maintenance
Adaptation and change
What is an example of Boundary maintenance?
Murder
What is meant by boundary maintenance?
Crime produces a reaction from society, uniting Its members against the deviant reinforcing their commitment to the value of consensus, Also punishment helps by reaffirming our shared rules and solidarity.
What did Durkheim argue about change?
That it all started as deviance
What has to happen in order for change?
Individuals with new ideas must challenge existing ideas which will at first appear as deviance. If this is suppressed then society will stagnate and not make necessary changes.
Which sociologists identified positive functions of deviance?
Davis and Cohen
What did Davis suggest?
Prostitution acts as a safety valve for men’s sexual desires without threatening the nuclear family.
What did Cohen suggest?
Deviance acts as a warning light showing that an institution is malfunctioning.
e.g. High truancy rates shows something is wrong at schools
What is a criticism that functionalism assumes?
They assume that crime perform a positive function for society as a whole (solidarity) But it ignores the individual victims of crime. Crime isn’t performing a positive function for the victim.
What did Durkheim criticise?
Claimed thar society needed a certain amount of deviance to function.
what did Marxists criticise?
they explain that poverty causes crime in working classes