...Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess the usefulness of functionalist approaches in explaining crime. (21 marks) In reference to Item A functionalism is a consensus theory, stating that in society we are governed by a value consensus that we all share. This means we all are socialised into the shared values, beliefs and norms of society. Functionalism uses this idea of value consensus to explain how crime is the result of not following this. It also explains how crime has functions in society and how it can play and integral part in society. Functionalists believe that crime is the effect of inadequate socialisation. This is because we are all individuals with our own experiences and families which raise us all differently whilst still keeping in with the norms and values of society, the problem lies where families socialise their children poorly and the children feel as sense of anomie or normlessness from their society. Meaning that they do not feel connected to the values they were poorly raised into. For instance, Durkheim argued that people feel anomie for the values and this makes them commit crime because they do not know that they aren’t supposed to, or that it is wrong. To them there is a blurred line between right and wrong. Therefore functionalism is useful at explaining what crime is caused by. Functionalists also feel though crime has a function in society, 1 Boundary maintenance, meaning that public displays of punishment (public courts)...
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...elsewhere, assess the usefulness of functionalist approaches in explaining crime (21 marks) Deviance is defined as the state of diverging from usual or accepted standards whereas crime is defined as an action or omission which constitutes an offence and is punishable by law. Usually, we would expect that functionalists would regard crime and deviance as wholly negative. However, functionalists such as Durkheim see the “beneficial effects of crime for society” whether there are “limited” or not. Additionally, functionalists see crime as inevitable and universal. Every known society has some level of crime and deviance. Within this essay, I will be exploring the ways key functionalists such as Durkheim, Merton, Cohen, Cloward and Ohlin view crime and criticisms towards their ideas. Durkheim states “crime is normal… an integral part of all healthy societies.” There are two reasons why crime and deviance are found in all societies. Which are; not everyone is equally effectively socialised into the shared norms and values and, therefore, some individuals will be prone to deviate. Secondly, in complex modern societies there is a diversity of lifestyles and values. Different groups develop their own subcultures with their own norms and values. The mainstream culture may regard their norms as deviant. Durkheim’s perspectives highlights that crime is not just inevitable but it also fulfils two important functions. Firstly, boundary maintenance. Crime produces a reaction from society,...
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...usefulness of functionalist approaches in explaining crime. (21 marks) In this essay one will assess the view of functionalists and how they approach their view of the causes of crime. Functionalisms over all view is to try understand how society shapes us by using a positivist view. Crime is defined as an action which constitutes an offence and is punishable by law. One will assess each functionalist and their theories looking at how they coincide with one another, then challenge these theories to other sociologists. One functionalist sociologist is Talcott Parsons, he sees that society is based on a ‘value consensus’, and that without such a set of core values, social life would be impossible to maintain. Therefore society is a system and has to meet and fulfil certain needs, compared similarly to a biological organism. Parsons argued that certain things can be destabilising to society, for example when people do not conform to what is expected. By relating to a biological organism Parsons uses the idea of the ‘sick role’ where those that are ill don’t respect the medical profession by accepting that they are ill. He says that sickness is seen as deviant and has the potential for destabilising society. In comparison in society if someone has a ‘deviant illness’ they do not conform to what is seen as the norms in society, they are then seen as deviant and are likely to be rejected in society and turn to crime. Another sociologist...
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...Functionalists view on crime & deviance With the functionalist emphasis on the importance of shared norms and values as the basis of social order, it would appear that deviance is a threat to order and should therefore be seen as a threat to society. Yet a functionalist analysis of deviance begins with society as a whole. It looks for the source of deviance in the nature of society rather than in the individual. They argue that social control mechanisms such as the police and the courts are necessary to keep deviance in check and to protect social order, as well as deviance being a necessary part of all societies and that it performs positive functions for social systems that even contribute to the maintenance and well being of society. They believe crime and deviance should be limited in order it to benefit all. Functionalists believe crime and deviance have positive functions such as crime and deviance acting like a warning device, some acts warn of problems that exist in the system. As a result, action can be taken to address the problem for example a child may skip school due to problems at home. As a result of the truancy the larger problems of abuse or cultural and material deprivation may be addressed and greater problems avoided. Crime and deviance could help society progress: today’s deviants are tomorrow’s innovators as people who challenge existing norms and values help to create better ways of living. For example Emily Pankhurst and the suffragettes helped...
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...Luscombe Outline and asses the functionalist explanations of crime and deviance. Functionalist ignore deviance; they look at society as a whole and ignore individualism. Functionalism is a structuralist approach (also known as a consensus theory) they believe that individuals are shaped by society and social facts. A limitation of functionalist is that they ignore certain groups within society, such as women and people with disabilities. They also ignore factors such as ‘race’ and social class. They believe that society will maintain stability if the institutions still exists and the factors that may cause conflict – are ignored. I will assessing the functionalist contribution to explanations of crime, to how useful it is and if those explanations have been applied within modern day society. Also how useful the explanations are at reducing crime. Deviance is a normative approach, it is associated with behaviour that differs from the set norms and values set out by society. Deviance is linked to informal social control through sanctions (not by laws or government policy). In a Post Modern society – this definition of deviance would be problematic because it refers to societal norms (which would have disappeared; due to individualism making it hard to follow set norms and values). Deviance could collapse in a post-modern society. Durkheim (1895) is a positivist who proposed the concept of anomie; as an explanation as to why certain people commit crime. He believes that if individuals...
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... the police and other social control agencies as paid agents of the ruling class, and crime as an inevitable outcome of the dog-eat-dog nature of the capitalist system, and the inequalities it generates. Crime also serves as a diversionary tactic, it diverts attention away from the exploitation and inequalities within the capitalism system and focuses the minds of the proletariat on deviants and criminals who are then mistakenly blamed for being the real cause of problems in society. However there are several variations in Marxist ideas on crime. Neo Marxists have developed critical criminology which has attempted to incorporate labelling theory and Brake has used subcultural theory to explain the attraction of youth groups. Assignment 2 – Using material from Item B and elsewhere assess the usefulness of Marxist approaches in explaining crime The traditional Marxist belief is a structural one as they see society as being based on a structure, this structure being determined and controlled by one of the two groups that they believe society is divided into. These two groups are the ruling capitalist class (bourgeoisie) who own the means of production, and the working class (proletariat) whose alienated labour the ruling class exploit to make profit. Item B draws on this point as it says “they see the law as a tool of the ruling class.” There are several variations in Marxist ideas on crime (Item B). Traditional Marxists talk more about the criminogenic nature of capitalism and...
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...Using the material from Item A and elsewhere assess the usefulness of functionalist approaches in explaining crime. (21 Marks) Crime is the act which breaks the criminal laws of society. The functionalists approach to crime and deviance gives us some insight into how society copes with deviant behaviour. However it has limitations for example it only looks at the functions of deviance and not the causes. Durkheim says that to allow social solidarity to occur in society there are two key mechanisms which are socialisation and social control. He states that crime and deviance is inevitable and that it is needed in society as it preforms two positive functions; boundary maintenance and adaption. In Durkheim’s view, the purpose of punishment is to reaffirm society’s shared rules. As it states in Item A the publicity given to crime highlights the boundaries of acceptable behaviour and this reinforces social solidarity through for example court rooms which dramatizes the wrong doing and stigmatises the offender and therefore discourages others from breaking society’s rules. For individuals that want adaption, there must be some scope for them to challenge and change the existing norms and values which is deviance. However, in time there values may give way to a new culture and morality. For example gay marriage would be seen as deviant but in current times it has become less deviant in countries such as the United Kingdom because it has become more popular over the last decade. If...
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...material from item A and elsewhere, assess different Marxist views of the relationship between crime and social class. Marxism is a conflict structural theory which states that there is a division of labour between two social classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariats, because of the existence, exploitation and reproduction of capitalism. Marxists explain how superstructures in society, such as religion, politics, media, education, law etc, act as agencies of control and serve the interests of the ruling class. Unlike functionalists, Marxists do not agree that there is a value consensus in society but instead state that the superstructures benefit the bourgeoisie and damage the lives of the proletariat. As Item A states, crime in society can be seen as a reaction against the unequal distribution of wealth through the social position they have been given. The essay will focus on the relationship between crime and social class in a Marxist perspective. The traditional Marxist approach to crime suggests that crime is inevitable because capitalism is criminogenic – crime is built in its very nature. The concept of capitalism is to create as much profit by paying low wages to the labourers which leads to many consequences. The exploitation rises poverty and material deprivation which means that crime may be the only option for working class members to survive. Utilitarian crimes are more likely to be committed by working class members than the ruling class because the materials...
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...Criminology: Functionalist perspective on crime and deviance The functionalist approach to analyzing deviance and the causes of crime looks at society as a whole. It explains crime and deviance by saying that the source of deviance lies in the nature of society itself rather than in psychology or biology. It should be noted that functionalists see deviance as an inevitable and necessary part of society. Some also consider deviance to have positive aspects for society. Emile Durkheim Durkheim argued in The Rules of Sociological Method that a certain level of crime was inevitable within any society. In fact it is normal and 'an integral part of all healthy societies’. The reason that deviance is inevitable is that not everyone is equally committed to the collective values and moral beliefs of society. There will always be disagreement and dissent. In addition, deviance can act in a positive way in that it helps to reinforce ideas of right and wrong in society. It reinforces ‘collective sentiments’ in society. Problems with deviance arise when the level of crime becomes too great as this can threaten social stability. Durkheim considered that deviance acts as a catalyst for social change in society. Change occurs because what was thought deviant previously is now considered acceptable. In this way society evolves and makes progress, which is healthy. The alternative would be stagnation and atrophy with no development. Indeed, Durkheim viewed societies where crime levels were...
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...society to prevent extreme egoism from destroying all social bonds. Resultantly, he saw society as external and independent to individuals, being made up of ‘social facts’ that constrain and shape people’s behaviour to meet society’s functional prerequisites (needs). Durkheim further believed that if any one thing (‘social fact’) exists, it has a function which will help meet society’s needs, the key ones of which are goals (met through political institutions, e.g. parliament), adaptation (meeting members’ material needs, e.g. through the economy), integration (socialising members into the shared values and goals of society, e.g. through education and the media) and latency (maintaining society through reproduction of its members). Functionalists describe society using an organic analogy and comparing it to a biological organism. Parsons argues that society and the human body are...
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...Structure-functionalism relies upon an "organic" analogy of human society as being "like an organism," a system of interdependent parts that function for the benefit of the whole. Thus, just as a human body consists of parts that function as an interdependent system for the survival of the organism, society consists of a system of interdependent institutions and organizations that function for the survival of the society. Relying upon the successes of biologists in understanding the human body, functionalists took a similar approach to understanding human social systems. Social systems were dissected into their "parts," or institutions (family, education, economy, polity, and religion), and these parts were examined to find out how they worked and their importance for the larger social system. The rationale was that if scientists could understand how institutions worked, then their performance could be optimized to create an efficient and productive society. This approach as proved to be very successful and is the predominant philosophy guiding macro-level sociology today. Structure-functionalism arose in part as a reaction to the limitations of utilitarian philosophy, where people were viewed as strictly rational, calculating entrepreneurs in a free, open, unregulated, and competitive marketplace. The tenet of functionalism, and the fundamental building block of all sociology, is that people behave differently in groups than they do as individuals. Groups have "lives of...
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...There are principal sociological perspectives that provide a Marxism, Interactionism, Collectivism and Functionalism. There are many approaches used to define the societies and the) of the people who live in it. These approaches help explain how much impact and difference they make towards our society, health and well-being. According to the Functionalist perspective approach also called functionalism, each aspect on it’s on is interdependent and contributes to the society’s functioning as a whole. The government provides the society with education for everyone mainly focusing on children, which in return will pay taxes on which the state depends on to keep it running. The same family is still depending on the school to help children grow up and have good jobs and have a better future and can support their own families and themselves meaning in this processes the children become respectable taxpaying citizens who in turn support the state. Functionalism suggests that if all this goes well there will be order, productivity and stability in the society. This perspective is based on the theory of Emile Durkheim (1893). Durkheim, and Functionalists believe that in order for society to function positively each part of society must operate well, and together, in order for society on the whole to run perfectly. However if things do not go as planned society may have to find new ways or adapt to retain order, stability and productivity, For example if there is a financial crises with high...
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...Structure-functionalism relies upon an "organic" analogy of human society as being "like an organism," a system of interdependent parts that function for the benefit of the whole. Thus, just as a human body consists of parts that function as an interdependent system for the survival of the organism, society consists of a system of interdependent institutions and organizations that function for the survival of the society. Relying upon the successes of biologists in understanding the human body, functionalists took a similar approach to understanding human social systems. Social systems were dissected into their "parts," or institutions (family, education, economy, polity, and religion), and these parts were examined to find out how they worked and their importance for the larger social system. The rationale was that if scientists could understand how institutions worked, then their performance could be optimized to create an efficient and productive society. This approach as proved to be very successful and is the predominant philosophy guiding macro-level sociology today. Structure-functionalism arose in part as a reaction to the limitations of utilitarian philosophy, where people were viewed as strictly rational, calculating entrepreneurs in a free, open, unregulated, and competitive marketplace. The tenet of functionalism, and the fundamental building block of all sociology, is that people behave differently in groups than they do as individuals. Groups have "lives of...
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...and programmes of government bodies which aim to deal with a problem or achieve a goal .e.g preventing crime and reducing poverty. Policies are often based on laws that provide the framework within which these agencies operate. The following essay will argue for and against the relationship between sociology and social policy. It can be argued that the relationship between social policy and sociology is not always consistent because sociological funding may not be implemented. This is because of a range of factors such as electoral popularity. This is the perception that social policy will not be used to if citizens will not like the policy. Also current government bodies and their ideologies will also influence the implementation of government polices. This means research findings may have to fit into the governments’ values and set of beliefs before the social policies can be implemented. Finally, funding sources are another important factor. This is the view that the government essentially influences what area of research the sociologists researches and it is essentially a reference to the phrase “He who pays the piper call the tune” this is the view that the policies suggestions are initiated by the government. The relationship between sociology and social policy according to Functionalists and Positivists such as Durkheim is that an objective and scientific approach should be used in order to generate social facts which can be used by the government to develop patterns...
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...functionalism to our understanding of families and households. Functionalism is a macro approach to society. It is based on a consensus that society as whole is run by and for the benefit of all its members. Early Functionalists such as Durkheim believed that society is made up of many institutions which work together to function. Regarding families, Functionalists believe that the nuclear family is best for society. Functionalists look at what the functions the family performs and they therefore say that the nuclear family is best for society. For example functionalists believe that traditional domestic roles (for the male to play an instrumental role as the breadwinner and the female to do the dual-burden) are necessary to ensure that children are socialised correctly with both male and female role models. Functionalists believe that the nuclear family is perfect for bringing up a geographically mobile workforce which allows families to move about for work easily, for example Functionalists believe during the industrial revolution nuclear families became more common as it was easier for families to move to an urban area in search of work than if it was for example an extended family. Conflict theories such as Marxism and Feminism challenge the Functionalism and the consensus of society by taking a more critical view. Social historians such as Laslett and Anderson also criticize the functionalist view of a ‘Functional Fit’ in the family. The main supporters of Functionalism in the...
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