Functionalist view on crime & deviance
● Believe that crime is actually beneficial for society
Durkheim:
- criminals perform crucial service in helping laws to reflect the wishes of the population &
legitimising social change
- crime only becomes dysfunctional when there is too much/little of it
- a limited amount of crime is inevitable & even necessary and a healthy society needs a
balance of both crime & punishment
- cause of crime is because not everyone is effectively socialised into the shared norms and
values of society
1. Social regulation = when police arrest someone it makes it clear to the rest of society that
that action is unacceptable & it warns others not to breach the law (media)
2. Social solidarity = when horrific crimes are committed the whole community joins together
in outrage & this creates a sense of belonging/strengthens a community
3. Social change = when laws are out of step with the feeling & values of the majority legal
form is necessary (anomie)
Merton:
- crime occurs when there aren’t enough legitimate opportunities for people to achieve the
normal success goals of society which creates a strain between goals and the means to
achieve these goals so people turn to crime
- 5 adaptations to crime; 1. Conformity, 2. Reitualism, 3. Innovation, 4. Retreatism, 5.
Rebellion
- developed his theory from official statistics which states that WC commit more crime
- american society promotes material success as the ‘legitimate goal’ but for the WC this is a
‘dream’/ ideology that only puts greater pressure to achieve material success by illegitimate
crimes to avoid failure
Hirishi:
- people commit crime when their attachment to society is not strong
- the level of attachment is dependent upon the strength of social bonds people hold to
society
- 4 bonds; 1. Attachment, 2. Commitment, 3, Involvement, 4, belief
Albert Cohen:
- studied deviance in schools (juvenile crime) & found the WC reacting to feelings of ‘status
frustration’
- recognised that delinquency might in fact be cultural
- WC experience sf because they cannot achieve social goals so they form subcultures that
take mainstream social goals & invert them into something negative
- delinquents value deviant/anti-school behaviours even if it doesn’t lead to financial gain
(explains arson, vandalism) as they gain status in their groups through rule breaking & reject
a system that has caused them to fail
● Believe that crime is actually beneficial for society
Durkheim:
- criminals perform crucial service in helping laws to reflect the wishes of the population &
legitimising social change
- crime only becomes dysfunctional when there is too much/little of it
- a limited amount of crime is inevitable & even necessary and a healthy society needs a
balance of both crime & punishment
- cause of crime is because not everyone is effectively socialised into the shared norms and
values of society
1. Social regulation = when police arrest someone it makes it clear to the rest of society that
that action is unacceptable & it warns others not to breach the law (media)
2. Social solidarity = when horrific crimes are committed the whole community joins together
in outrage & this creates a sense of belonging/strengthens a community
3. Social change = when laws are out of step with the feeling & values of the majority legal
form is necessary (anomie)
Merton:
- crime occurs when there aren’t enough legitimate opportunities for people to achieve the
normal success goals of society which creates a strain between goals and the means to
achieve these goals so people turn to crime
- 5 adaptations to crime; 1. Conformity, 2. Reitualism, 3. Innovation, 4. Retreatism, 5.
Rebellion
- developed his theory from official statistics which states that WC commit more crime
- american society promotes material success as the ‘legitimate goal’ but for the WC this is a
‘dream’/ ideology that only puts greater pressure to achieve material success by illegitimate
crimes to avoid failure
Hirishi:
- people commit crime when their attachment to society is not strong
- the level of attachment is dependent upon the strength of social bonds people hold to
society
- 4 bonds; 1. Attachment, 2. Commitment, 3, Involvement, 4, belief
Albert Cohen:
- studied deviance in schools (juvenile crime) & found the WC reacting to feelings of ‘status
frustration’
- recognised that delinquency might in fact be cultural
- WC experience sf because they cannot achieve social goals so they form subcultures that
take mainstream social goals & invert them into something negative
- delinquents value deviant/anti-school behaviours even if it doesn’t lead to financial gain
(explains arson, vandalism) as they gain status in their groups through rule breaking & reject
a system that has caused them to fail
